Time is Dead
by fika1603
Summary: The strange phone call Seto received in the middle of the night marked his reluctant involvement in the investigation of a series of murders completely irrelevant to him... or were they in fact everything to do with him and his Ancient Egyptian past?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: to my past readers: i'm back! hahah! xD**

**to my general readers: although this is a crossover fic, L's appearances might tend to be selective. due to my strong bias, Seto Kaiba is the main hero of this fic xD but i hope you guys don't mind! [and i smell further appearances of other YGO characters. hehh]**

**anyway, hope you guys like this one as well!**

**love, fika1603**

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><p>The swiveling single letter screensaver suddenly blanked out, and gave way to a live feed. The young man hopped off his chair, pushed it slightly closer to where the screen was, and hopped back on again. He glanced at the clock in the far corner of the screen. Right on time. He waited patiently until the live streaming from his side commenced. If the other party was surprised to see his Noa stage mask, they hid it well.<p>

He spoke into an adjoining microphone fitted out with a synthesizer, "Officer Matsushita. Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon," the senior-looking police officer on the other end greeted back nervously. He hurriedly referred to some notes he had on hand. "L." He swallowed hard. "How may Domino City Police Department help you?"

XO XO XO XO

The sudden burst of lightning and thunder awoke him with a start. The young brunette glanced up hurriedly about him. It was already dark outside. Scowling, he peered at his Armani watch. It was past 2am, no wonder.

_Last one in the office again_, he sighed, reaching out for his silver briefcase that was lying at the far end of his desk. The CEO rubbed his eyes. _I should start heading home early one of these days._

He had just put on his white blazer, and was about to call for his driver to (finally) prepare the car for him, when suddenly his laptop screen came to life. Such strangeness was enough to make a man stop dead in his tracks, and render him immediately awake.

_What now…_ he groused as he returned to his seat. It better be good.

Initially the screen gave way to a white screen, until a huddling masked figure appeared. He stared at the stranger incredulously. How many weirdos did he need to encounter in a lifetime?

"Good evening Mr Seto Kaiba," a soft synthesized voice spoke pleasantly from behind the Noa mask.

The young KaibaCorp CEO was sleepy, he was hungry and worse of all he was tired. Naturally at 2am he was in no mood to entertain prank hackers. "Who are you?" he demanded. "And what do you want? Make it quick."

"Seto… coincidentally it seems to be the namesake for Set, Egyptian god of deserts, storms and chaos," the stranger mused. "Is that the case with you, Mr Kaiba?"

Seto snorted impatiently. "What the hell do I care who I'm named after. I'm asking you for your name and your purpose. I don't have all day."

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry," the Noa-masked person suddenly seemed to recall what he contacted Seto for. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced. You can call me L. I was referred by your city's police department to you."

"For what?" Seto was really getting irritated by now.

The stranger gestured languidly as he made a downward pointing gesture. Seto's eyes followed where he was pointing, and sure enough, a blinking box appeared on his browser toolbar. "Please open it," the stranger ordered politely.

Seto warily opened it. Even if it turned out to be some data-destroying worm, he was prepared. As usual, he had his staff backed up KaibaCorp's datas every few days or so. However, when the bar opened up into a window, it had nothing to do with Trojans or worms or viruses. Rather, it turned out to be… a case file?

He threw a severely annoyed look to the Noa-masked person who called himself L. "What the hell is this?" he asked harshly.

"It is as you see it, a case file," L answered simply. "I understand that you're regarded as one of the brightest people in Domino City. And one of my informants has uncovered your… uncanny ability to read hieroglyphics. Which is why, Seto Kaiba, I'd like you to help solve this case."

"What if I refuse?" Seto challenged.

L appeared to be unfazed. "You will help me with this case," he repeated a bit more firmly. "Seto Kaiba, I advise you to read through the case file quickly. After five minutes, please destroy your laptop."

"What?"

Seto barely had time to object when the live feed was disconnected. Sure enough, a timer appeared where L's masked face was. Seto swore silently. Quickly he punched the print button. The case files, or whatever it was, he can read on his way back. Meanwhile, he reached for his desk phone and dialed a number. "Roland? Prepare my car. And get someone to find out about a certain person called L. I'll brief you in on the details later in the car."

XO XO XO XO

Once he had filled Roland in with as much details as he could about L – which is to say, not much since all they knew was his pseudonym, that L was probably a detective and had contact with the city's police department – Seto retreated to the backseat and balanced his briefcase on his lap. He was tired; he really wanted to sleep. But he was too incensed that his laptop literally died after the five minutes that L warned him about, and equally vexed that he was unwillingly recruited by L, to even grab a nap on the way home.

Sighing, he unlatched his briefcase and took out a thin stack of papers he had fastened with a paperclip. He had ended up printing out the 'case files' that that dubious L character had talked about, and now, since his sleepiness just decided to run away, Seto figured he could spare what five to ten minutes he had perusing the document.

For something originating from a suspicious character, the case file was as complete and as detailed as possible. For a split second, Seto wondered if this L person hadn't just stolen it from the Domino City Police records. Maybe he had, but that was probably the least of his concern. Until he figured out L's identity, he could afford to treat this case partnership business as a form of not very funny entertainment.

The case file was split into three sections, each hosting a different but clearly related case. Seto picked up the first one and scanned its contents. In the text, it had summarized the possible cause of death as suicide by poison. The victim seemed like a nobody: a certain Tina Tanner who worked at a soapland going by the stage persona of Thrusty Tina. Seto snorted as he tossed the photo of the victim aside without looking at it. So this was what L hacked into his system and forced him to enter some detective wannabe partnership for?

Moving on, he picked up the second case. Easily classified as a fatal accident resulting from a snake bite. The victim was once again insignificant: a seventeen-year-old high school dropout suspected by police to be a drug addict who decided to go on a camping trip and wrongly came face to face with a poisonous snake. Seto tossed this one aside as well, barely bothering to read the specifics of the case.

He was just about to mentally harangue L again when his azure eyes landed on the third case. Seto actually flinched as he took a look at the gruesome photo. The body was rotten by the time the police caught a snapshot of it, teeming with maggots especially on a stump where the right leg should have been. There seemed to be white crystals spilling out from the victim's nose and ears. Seto peered closer to read the description that came along with the photo: Possibly dead for about 14 days. Right leg seemed to have been amputated. Victim's brain removed and replaced with salt.

"What in the world…" Seto murmured, still horrified by what he saw. "What has all these got to do with me…"

Suddenly, he recalled a certain comment that L made which the latter had supplanted as a reason to extend a partnership with him:_ … your uncanny ability to read hieroglyphics_. Seto let out a deep sigh. That was why L had been so eager to secure his reluctant partnership.

"The next thing I know, he'll be expecting me to be able to read Sanskrit," he muttered, gathering the documents to inspect them a bit closer now that he had come to the morose realization.

His cell phone rang, and he answered it blindly. "Seto Kaiba."

"Good morning, Seto Kaiba," a familiar synthesized voice greeted him almost cheerfully from the other end. "Have you inspected the case files?"

Seto scowled. "Yes, I did," he admitted gruffly. "And I don't see how my 'uncanny ability to read hieroglyphics' come into play."

"Well, actually, you can," L objected politely. "Would you mind heading down to the crime scenes later on today?"

"What?" This was getting ridiculous. "Go down to those places yourself. I have a business to run."

"I can't," L replied simply. This only served to infuriate Seto further. "You're already within Domino City itself. It would be much easier and faster for you than it would be for me."

Seto snorted indignantly. "What makes you think I'll listen to a suspicious, hacker creep like you?"

Seto could swear L was probably smiling when he answered, "You've already made one step a progress into the case. I'm sure you'll see it through. Thank you, Seto Kaiba. You can contact me at this number again once you've reached the first site. Please use line five."

Seto gritted his teeth furiously as once again L hung up just as sudden as he had called. Go down to the crime scenes? Seto picked up the first case file and stared at it grudgingly. Soapland. No way in hell was he going to set foot there. Surely even adventures need to have its own limits. The second location was a hill rather far away from either his office or his house. He was being bluntly honest with the now-irritating mysterious caller when he said he was busy; Seto vaguely recalled he had three meetings lined up in a matter of hours.

And I need sleep, he groused further, his annoyance level probably sky-rocketing with every mile covered by his car.

Roland peered over at him from the driver's seat via the rearview mirror. "Any trouble, sir?"

"Yes," Seto answered heatedly. "Yes there is. I'm tired and I'm being harassed by some unknown caller to play Sherlock Holmes, and that moron seem to not take no for an answer."

Roland bit back a smile at his employer's rant. "Maybe I could help, Mr Kaiba. What did he ask you to do?"

Despite his exhaustion, he managed to shoot his right-hand man a warning look. "Don't bother yourself with things like these, Roland. There's enough hassle at the office to occupy both yours and my time." Nevertheless, he grumpily admitted, "He wants me to go down to inspect the crime scenes for myself. I haven't got time, and even if I do, I can't be bothered. I'm a businessman, not Batman."

"Well, with your outfits, I wouldn't be surprised," Roland commented unhelpfully, sotto voce.

"Did you say something, Roland?"

"No, sir," Roland quickly cut in as innocently as possible. "I just said that we've arrived."

"I can see that," Seto muttered, gathering his stuff. Roland made a customary move as if to get out of the car and open the door for his employer, but Seto waved it off. "Don't bother. I'll do it myself. You go get this car parked in the garage."

Seto nearly felt sorry when his butler blearily opened the front door for him and took his briefcase for him. Only the first floor of the mansion was lit. His eyes ticked to a grandfather's clock in the corner. 3am. He would have to be up in a matter of three hours.

As he made his way up, one of his servants approached him to tell him that they've prepared the bath, which Seto nodded in acknowledgement of but in his mind had already rejected the idea in favour of his bed. But first, there was something he needed to do. He stopped by one of the rooms in the east wing and pushed open the door gently. The sight that greeted him wasn't very pretty.

"Mokuba, what are you still doing up?" he tried to sound stern, but on the back of sleep deprivation, such efforts barely gave its intended effect.

His younger brother seemed startled by his sudden appearance, and hurriedly closed the lid of his laptop. "Seto!" he greeted. "You're back!"

"I should be," his brother muttered in reply. "It's three in the morning." He glanced at his brother's laptop quizzically. "Watch what you're surfing. Anyway, get to bed. Don't you have school in the morning?"

Mokuba grinned sheepishly and scrambled back into bed, pulling up the covers to his neck. "Good night, Seto!"

"Good morning, Mokuba," Seto responded blearily.

Just a few steps away, he told himself as he dragged himself towards his bedroom and pushed open the door. He had never reveled at the sight of his four-poster bed more than now. Without bothering to remove his purple trenchcoat or his shoes, Seto crashed onto the bed. A new day would start in less than three hours. Maybe when he wakes up, all of this L business would prove to be a nightmare, and Seto Kaiba can lead the normal life that he always led.

XO XO XO XO

Naturally, wishes just remained wishes. Seto's relief at waking up in the morning, getting ready with a renewed confidence and heading down to enjoy breakfast with Mokuba was immediately stained when he saw the case files neatly arranged on his briefcase placed at the far end of the dining table. Before L and his stupid case files could destroy what was left of his appetite, Seto made up his mind to dispose of those papers and never see them again in his life. Unfortunately, Mokuba and his inquisitiveness was faster; by the time Seto reached out for those papers, Mokuba had already grabbed them and started reading them. Seto watched sullenly as excitement started to light his brother's face.

"Seto, how did you get this?" clearly his brother was in awe of his brother's supposed data-compilation skills, from the Domino City Police records, nevertheless.

"Someone gave it to me," Seto replied as uninterestedly as possible. "And anyway, it's nothing important."

"But it's compiled with such care, it's almost like you're a detective investigating these deaths," Mokuba continued. Seto groaned. That was enough to trigger the speculative senses in his brother. Mokuba eyed his brother carefully and asked, "Don't tell me you really are investigating these."

"I was invited to, but I refuse," Seto rolled his eyes at the prospect. He held out a hand. "Now give those papers back to me; I'm destroying them."

"But why? Seto, if the Domino City police personally invited you to help them solve this –"

"It wasn't them," Seto amended rather hastily, and immediately regretted it.

"Eh? Then who?"

Seto groaned louder. How in the world did he accidentally set off his brother's curious tendency? He sat down gruffly and buttered a toast for his brother, hoping for a chance to change the subject, "Hurry up and eat your breakfast. I don't want you to be late for school again."

His distraction barely worked. Mokuba was still as insistent as ever, and in the end, Seto gave up. Reluctantly – and rather warningly – he filled his brother in on all the incident that happened a few hours ago, right from the time his laptop was hacked into by some stranger named L who hid his face behind a Noa mask, up till the contents of the case files.

"But like I told Roland, I'm a businessman, not Batman," Seto insisted stubbornly.

"Then be Batman!" Mokuba suggested excitedly.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Mokuba, I have KaibaCorp to handle," Seto tried to reason.

"But Bruce Wayne has Wayne Enterprises too," Mokuba argued. "Maybe you can moonlight as a detective instead of a superhero."

"Don't put it that way," Seto muttered. "Moonlighting as a detective sounds wrong."

Mokuba snickered. "Well, your first crime scene is soapland."

"I'm not stepping my foot in there!" Seto protested. Then he threw a look at his brother. "And how do you know what's soapland, anyway?"

"Kids at school," Mokuba shrugged. "Anyway, you don't have to go there. Maybe you can get someone else who's more comfortable with the place and more free?"

"Like who, Wheeler?" Seto remarked sarcastically.

"Actually, that might work," Mokuba remarked cheerfully.

"Then go tell him."

"Huh?"

"Go tell him about this," Seto repeated, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

"You mean, you're hiring him?" Mokuba asked in disbelief.

"I'm not paying him. I'm just saying he can go do the dirty jobs for me," Seto corrected. "And when I mean let him go, I don't mean that you can follow him. He can keep all his bad influences to himself." He glanced at his watch. "Do you want to hitch a ride or not?"

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><p><strong>for those who are wondering what soapland is, err... please look it up on wikipedia. [laugh]<strong>

**it's a term i came across while watching a documentary, and well... i thought it'll be an interesting crime scene.**

**and then you'll understand Seto's reaction to visiting such a place .**

**see you all for the next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: thanks for the reviews bb (:**

**to my horror, my original story plan for this one got lost**

**BUT hey, it's more fun to improvise on the spot, isn't it?**

**for you guys, Chapter 2!**

**sorry for the wait ^^**

**hope you guys like it! do review so i can keep going with this one xD**

**love, fika1603**

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><p>"He what?"<p>

Mokuba glanced around nervously as he hissed at his brother's nemesis to lower his voice, "Keep it quiet! Do you want to tell the entire place you're assigned to mess around in a soapland?"

Joey hunched forward and hissed back to the younger Kaiba, "Why me? Why isn't that extremely-holier-than-everybody brother of yours doing the splunking job? Isn't he the one that's 'hired' to play detective?"

Mokuba threw him a look. "Joey, it's Seto. It'll be blasphemous to his principles."

The blond merely grinned and flicked a finger at his nose as he answered smugly, "Tell him that at that rate he'll end up a lonely, bitter old geezer who missed out on some of the best pleasures in life."

Naturally, that comment earned him a rather strong kick by Mokuba from under the table. Joey yelped as his burger came crashing onto the table. Ignoring him, Mokuba handed him an envelope. Without wiping his hands, Joey opened it and spilled the contents on his lap. He picked up a photo of a busty, doe-eyed brunette posing with a customary cute smile. Joey let out a low whistle.

Mokuba, observing his friend's reaction, rolled his eyes. Bluntly he said, "You can dream on about meeting her. She's dead."

Joey stared at him in disbelief as he waved the photo at him. "This cute of a girl… dead? Life is so unfair." He sighed as he put the photo away, and picked up a sheaf of paper. "And what's this supposed to be?"

"Her death records," Mokuba leaned over to explain helpfully. "Apparently she committed suicide by drinking poison."

"Suicide?" Joey repeated as he picked up the photo to stare at it again. "But dude, this kind of girl… surely she'll have work going for her."

"Maybe she got tired of that kind of life?" Mokuba suggested, then shrugged. "Who knows. Anyway, at the bottom of the page is the address of her workplace."

Joey's eyes quickly scanned the said address, and his astonishment became more obvious. "You're making me enter the reddest of the red-light district," he warned Mokuba. "Is your brother trying to get me killed? Is he crazy? Do you know who controls that area? And do you know how often the cops do a raid there? What if I get caught soliciting?"

"We'll bail you out," Mokuba assured him quickly with a smile.

"Who cares about bail, my life will be destroyed!" Joey countered. People in the fast food outlet was starting to throw quizzical looks at them, and Joey hurriedly lowered his voice to an ominous hiss. "I'm not going to do this unless I'm guaranteed to be safe from any trouble."

"Oh, come on Joey!" Mokuba wheedled. "It's soapland. And my brother told me to keep an eye on you to make sure you do your job."

Joey squinted suspiciously at his younger friend, then broke into a sly, knowing grin. "It's you, isn't it? You want to head down there? Ehh… no."

"What?"

"You're not going," Joey clarified himself, thumping the table gently at the end of his sentence as if to emphasize his decision. "I'll go on your behalf, okay? I'll sneak in photos for you. But no way in hell or heaven are you gonna step foot there, alright?"

"Make sure you do your job," Mokuba warned, eyeing Joey carefully. "Don't get overexcited."

"Aw, someone's jealous ain't he?" Joey shot back grinningly. He clenched his right hand into a fist and gently pounded his chest. "No worries. Detective Wheeler will do his job."

XO XO XO XO

Seto stood up as a form of politeness as his clients filed out from the conference room. Once the last of his clients were out of sight, he let himself slump back into his seat. One of his bodyguards lurched forward, his body tense and ready to spring into action should his employer collapse, but Seto waved him off with a stern look. His bodyguard bowed apologetically and retreated to his initial position.

Sighing, Seto flipped open his cell phone and dialed a number. The other end immediately anwered, and Seto went straight to the point, "Any updates?"

"Well, sir," Roland started. Seto could hear the ruffling of some papers in the background. "According to what we've found out, this L person is… well, he's credible. He's unofficially affliated to the FBI and is based in the States. He's regarded as one of the best detectives in the world, and possibly a genius in his own right."

Seto snorted. "He must be so disliked by the cops for him to resort to harassing a busy, unrelated CEO 3000 miles away. Carry on."

"Yes. Well, Mr Kaiba, it's been rather understood by the FBI and the Interpol that L wouldn't take on a case unless it involved more than ten victims, or if it involved at least ten million dollars. Although there were instances where he deviated from the trend." Roland paused for a while to let his boss catch on to his words. "Mr Kaiba, are you positive you want to continue working with L, sir?"

The young CEO leaned back in his chair and thought for a while. In all honesty, he had a lot of things to settle. One of the most urgent matters was to renew his contract with Maximillion Pegasus's Industrial Illusions, before that sneaky von Schroeder could slither in and steal the contract away. Despite the acquisition of contracts with several new technological clients to develop portable games, Industrial Illusions remained KaibaCorp's biggest partner.

But knowing that the world's best detective personally contacted you for your help, such a thought was enough to boost the ego of any person. Seto Kaiba especially, with his simple life principle of always emerging the best in no matter what, was no exception. In any case, the investigation could be a good research and testing ground to further expand the possibilities for KaibaCorp's future technological development, perhaps in the area of state security.

"Get hold of Wheeler," Seto ordered, and subsequently hinting to Roland his answer to the question earlier. "And haul his sorry ass to see me as soon as possible, complete with all the evidences he compiled."

"You mean, drag him back to you from… whichever soapland he's at?" Roland voiced out rather meekly.

"I doubt the mutt will run away," Seto muttered. "You don't have to step into the filthy place. Just call him up and threaten. That should do the trick. Unless he refuses, then I give you permission to storm in and haul him away. Knock him out, if you have to."

"Y-y-yes sir! Mr Kaiba, sir!" Roland ended off the call sounding equally excited, equally nervous and equally terrified.

Seto sighed as he rose and headed for the door. Over his shoulder, he told his bodyguard on stand-by, "Guard outside my office later. I'm going to grab some sleep. Don't wake me up unless there's an emergency, or when Roland arrives with an oversized yelping golden creature."

XO XO XO XO

Joey stepped into the dim corridor cautiously. Despite his pretense to be excited at visiting such a place on Kaiba's behalf, in truth, the dark and dingy nature of the venue was making him all queasy and uncomfortable inside. Several women were leading their clients upstairs, once in a while laughing coquettishly or teasing with their clients' ties. Joey took a deep breath and dared to approach what must be the counter. Seated behind it was a well made-up woman, probably in her late thirties, who stood up to welcome him eagerly.

Shakily, Joey dipped his hand into his jacket and took out a counterfeit badge bearing the Domino City Metropolitan Police Department logo (courtesy of the Kaibas, of course. How they got hold of it, Mokuba refused to say). "I'm with the MPD," Joey tried to sound as convincing as possible. "I've been assigned to work on a case about one of your employees. Tina Tanner?"

The receptionist sounded disappointed at his revelation, but grudgingly cooperated, anyway. She led him into a back room which surprisingly looked more like a normal office one compared to the sleaziness happening outside. The receptionist chuckled at his astounded reaction.

"We're still running a business, regardless," she reminded him. She took a seat behind a large desk, and tried as sophisticatedly as possible to light up a long, narrow cigarette. As Joey took his seat opposite her, she offered him a stick. Joey shook his head. She pouted in dismay. "You're no fun."

"Like I said, I'm here to investigate," Joey said loudly. "So what can you tell me about Tina?"

"Shouldn't we be acquainted first?" she asked, smiling widely at him. She pulled open a drawer, took something from it and slid it across the table to Joey. He glanced down at it. A name card. "Maria Ishimura. Nice to meet you…?"

"Joe-Jonathan," Joey hurriedly improvised. "Jonathan Walker."

"Ah, Johnny," Maria commented as if she knew him for a long time. Joey fidgeted in his seat. "I hope you don't mind me calling you that." Another of her wide smile. "So, Johnny, what can I do for you?"

"Err… about Tina Tanner," Joey answered, pulling his hands back and keeping them under the desk before Maria could make a move for them. "Anything about her. How she was as an employee. And did anything happen before she died."

"Thrusty Tina, hmm?" Maria rested her chin on the back of her hand as she looked away, as if recalling something. "She's been an excellent employee. Perhaps one of the best. She was terribly popular among the clients, you know." She shot him a knowing smile. "Have you seen her pictures?"

"Ah, yes," Joey rummaged for something inside his jacket, and pulled out the photo that Mokuba had passed to him earlier. "This is Tina, isn't it?"

Maria examined the photo for a while, and then nodded. "But that's such an old photo of her," she commented. "Don't you cops update your records?" Joey was about to eke out some unsatisfactory answer, but Maria spared him the trouble by bringing out a thick photo folder. "Her latest photos would be towards the back of the album." At Joey's confused look, Maria chuckled. "Why? Are you surprised we keep photo albums of our girls? Look, this may be a soapland, but I told you, it's still a business. One of our policy is to protect our workers. Of course, the girls don't know that we take these shots of them as part of the policy."

Joey, who was about to flip open the album, froze momentarily at her words. "You mean…"

Maria sighed. "We don't have much choice. What would our clients say if we call for them to have a photograph taken before they engage the girls? My business would be ruined. Besides, one of our lies to our clients is that their identities are confidential to themselves." Seeing Joey still hesitating to open the album, Maria sighed louder as she flipped it open for him. "Seriously, haven't you had a normal dirty teenagehood." She perused some of the pages for a while, before handing it back to him. "Here. Her last few clients before she… you know."

Joey gulped as he dared to look at the photos. Maria was not lying when she said the photos were taken without anyone's knowledge, including the girls themselves. Based on those shots, on her last day at work, Tina had about ten sessions, with some being with several men in one session. Joey hurriedly looked away and passed the album back to Maria.

"So basically it was business as usual for her?" he asked, trying very hard to pretend that he had not just gone red in the face at the sight of the photos. Maria seemed to have not noticed as she closed the photo album.

"Living up to her name as usual," Maria answered. "She was even so happy that she had managed to gather enough savings…" At Joey's expectant gaze, Maria gave a weak smile. "Tina had wanted to leave this…industry to set up her own manicure salon. She had tendered in her resignation last month, and I had approved it."

Joey stared at her in disbelief. "You let her go?"

Maria's eyes clouded at the assumption behind his words. "Johnny, I'm a businesswoman, not a yakuza pimp. My employees are free to come and free to leave, as long as they tell me beforehand." The storm quickly passed as they crossed, and soon she was graciously leading Joey to Tina's private working chamber.

Joey took a peek inside. For a working quarters, it was rather large. Nothing seemed to be out of place, except for a few chalk scrawlings made by the actual police when they came down earlier to investigate. Joey fished out the sheet of paper that Mokuba had passed to him just now and quickly scanned the details. After making sure his eyes were not playing tricks on him, he swore under his breath. Turning to Maria, he asked to be excused so he could carry on investigation undisturbed. Maria simply shrugged and gave her assent before walking away.

"If you need me for one reason or another, you know where to find me," she told him over her shoulder.

Joey grunted that he understood. Once she was out of sight, without wasting much time, he ducked under the police tapes and stepped into the room. He fiddled with a KaibaCorp-technology video camera and began taping the scene as he walked around the room. He let the camera pan slowly over the dresser, the bed, the walls, the floor and even the ceiling. Where he could, he bothered himself to take close-up shots. Once he was done, he ensured the video was saved and pocketed the video camera. Kaiba had not ordered him to do this, but Joey was having too much fun playing detective, he decided it would not do him any harm anyway: he began a physical inspection of the room.

He started with the dresser. The police had put a card to mark where the bottle of poison had been. Apart from that, nothing seemed amiss with the cosmetic haphazardly arranged on it. Nevertheless, for posterity sake, Joey took a photo of it.

Next, he went for the bed. The bedsheets and all were gone, probably taken by the police for lab testing. It did not seem like there was anything worth searching there. Joey sighed as he took out his instructions again. Kaiba had stated that he was to search for anything remotely symbol-like, either a symbol on its own, or objects placed to create a symbol. Next to it, Kaiba had written (perhaps grudgingly) in red ink: 'In case it slips your empty mind, these symbols might possibly be hidden. So make yourself useful for once in your life and hunt.'

"He's so bossy even on paper!" Joey complained, kicking the bed for good measure.

As he did so, the impact from his kick caused the bed to shift. Joey was about to rearrange the bed back when he caught sight of something on the floor. "Eh?" He knelt down to pick it, then immediately tossed it back onto the floor again. "Ewww! Gross!" Hurriedly he looked for a piece of tissue, and by chance he found a hand sanitizer.

"Hidden symbols, huh?" he muttered, pushing the bed further to the side to reveal the floor below it. "I hate it when money bags is right."

XO XO XO XO

Seto stared at the video being played on his computer screen while examining the photos that were taken by Wheeler earlier. He had done his job so dutifully, Seto couldn't resist mentally agreeing with himself that the label 'mutt' had been rightly used for his nemesis.

The French doors to his office swung open and Roland hurried back in. "I've dealt with Mr Wheeler, sir," he reported.

"Ah, good," Seto commented nonchalantly. "Remind me to send a gratitude cheque to him soon. He doesn't need to butt in once the goods reach me."

"He did quite a good job, didn't he, Mr Kaiba," Roland sounded slightly relieved his employer's removal of Joey wasn't purely out of malice.

Seto snorted, and Roland took it to be a reluctant acknowledgement of the statement. Although the video was playing on his computer screen, Seto seemed more engrossed with one of the photos.

"Roland, get me one of my spare laptops from Misa," he ordered. "I'm sure she keeps it somewhere in her drawer."

"Yes, sir!" Roland was out of the room in a flash. Within seconds, he reappeared in his employer's office.

"You probably set a new record for yourself," Seto remarked dryly.

"Your secretary is right outside your office, Mr Kaiba," Roland humoured him as he handed the laptop to his employer.

"It's either I lack the ability to crack jokes or you're too deadpan," Seto remarked further as he started up his laptop. Nevertheless, his keen eyes never left the photo he had been studying from just now. "Does this seem to strike any… image to you, Roland?"

His right-hand man stiffly stepped forward to peer down at the said photo. With a sigh, Seto permitted him to take a seat across him, and Roland eagerly sat. As he did so, he was unable to hide his horror at seeing the photo.

"Mr Kaiba! Sir! These are… how do I put it across to you…"

Seto rolled his eyes at his right-hand man's zealously protective comment. "Roland, just because I don't have a girlfriend or wife or mistress or whatever, doesn't mean I don't know what those colourful balloons are and what they're used for. And yes, the sight of those used… stuff are disgusting, and I'm grateful I don't have such use for them. What I'm asking you is, what do they look like?"

"Eh? They're supposed to look like something?" Roland appeared to be too shocked to think beyond the box, but his employer was surprisingly patient with him then.

Seto grabbed a marker from his desk and traced the outline of the arrangement of those 'balloons'. "This… it looks like some creature, doesn't it?" Seto pointed out. "I've been trying to figure out what it looks like from just now. And the video that the mutt took was useless."

"Well… perhaps there were some things he didn't see," Roland offered unhelpfully.

"I knew I shouldn't have trusted him to do his job well," Seto growled. "He was probably too excited by the prospect of the venue to even keep his mind in che-" Suddenly his voice trailed off, as he came to a sudden realization. "Things he didn't see…"

By now, Roland had no idea what his employer was going on about. "Huh?"

Seto had already taken out his cell phone and dialed a number. He listened for a while, pressed a number, and pressed the phone back to his ear.

"Hello, Mr Kaiba," came the synthetic voice from the other end. "Have you found out something?"

"Yes and no," Seto answered gruffly. "Do you have lab analysis of the first crime scene?"

"I don't. Not for now, anyway. Is there something you need?"

"Ultraviolet scans. Luminol scans. Whatever." Seto demanded. "Things you can't see with the naked eye."

"… I got it. I'll send it to you now. Please check your inbox. Don't mind the sender's address."

Seto followed his orders and sure enough, a new email had already landed itself in his inbox. Out of habit, he checked the sender's address.

"You hacked into my personal email account?" Seto hissed, even as he opened the files to inspect them.

"Don't worry, I didn't read anything in there," L assured him. "I just used it to send you the files from a secure network. Have you received them?"

"Stop underestimating technology," Seto warned. His eyes quickly scanned the various lab reports and photos, before he finally paused on one.

"You found what you're looking for?" L prodded from the other end.

"First it was a specially-assembled set of condoms. Now it's hieroglyphics written with… Are all your high-profile cases these disgusting?" Seto commented as he enlarged the photo.

Seto could have sworn L was chuckling when he replied, "Not really. Most of the time they're a bit more normal. Could you figure out those hieroglyphics?"

"… Ammut," Seto finally said, after inspecting the hieroglyphics for a while. "What the hell is that?"

"The soul devourer," L replied simply.

"What? Stop talking in obscure terms," Seto warned.

"Mr Kaiba, I'm speaking plainly," L sought to correct his unwilling partner. "Ammut is believed by the Ancient Egyptians to be the soul devourer."

"I didn't particularly study about dead pharaohs," Seto remarked bluntly. "So what exactly is it?"

"Perhaps you could find out about it on your own," L suggested rather cheerfully. "I'm sorry but you will have to excuse me, Mr Kaiba. I have another call waiting. If you need to get back to me, please use line two."

Before Seto could say anything, L had hung up. Seto swore. More ancient Egyptian hocus-pocus for him to go find out about. Despite his internal complaints, his fingers were already rattling away on the keyboard trying to find a decent article about the Ammut. He found it:

… dwelled in the Hall of Ma'at awaiting the deceased to receive their judgement. Those unworthy of the Afterlife – those whose hearts were heavy with sin, impurities and imbalanced against the feather of Ma'at – shall be devoured by the goddess Ammut.

He took a look at the depicted picture of Ammut, mentally traced the outline and compared it with the condoms photo. It seemed to make sense now.

As Seto reached for his phone again, he growled, "I hate Ancient Egypt."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: sorry for the rather long wait, guys! [i am still trying to scrabble for research on the entire Ancient Egyptian mythology thing. hehh]**

**anyway, here's Chapter 3. douzo~!**

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><p><em>He walked through the streets, flanked on either side by his men. His people had dutifully cleared the path for him as he strode past, each bowing as he did so. Finally, he came to a clearing that was empty, except for a few workers already positioned to be on stand-by. He held a hand out, to signal to his guards to stay back. They wordlessly obliged, but watched on warily as he stepped forward such that the sun's rays directly fell on him. He held a hand up to shade his eyes as he gazed into the distance. The red earth, feared by many to be barren, devoid of life.<em>

"_Your Highness?" one of his men nudged from behind him._

_Without turning around, he held out his arms, outstretched, as if welcoming the sight of the Red Lands. In a clear, loud voice, he proclaimed, "Our people should fear Set no more. He who is the Lord of the Lower Lands, is also the protector of Ra. And I am named for him. I will give Set all the honour he deserves, as much as our Lord Horus of the Upper Lands deserve his. We shall hail him, and condemn him no more. We shall be protected under the balanced powers of Horus and Set. Erect a temple in their honour on these grounds."_

"_Yes, my Pharaoh," his men spoke quietly, bowing low again as he walked past them._

Seto stirred. A buzzing sound?

"What the hell," he grumbled as he scrabbled for his mobile phone somewhere on his bed. Without looking at the number, he answered, "What is it now?"

"Am I calling at the wrong time, Mr Kaiba?" the innocent tone of the synthetic voice was enough to jolt Seto awake more out of annoyance rather than anything.

Seto sighed wearily as he sat up. "Hurry up and tell me whatever is it that you need to tell me. I have nothing for you as of now after that stupid Ammut thing."

"Well, I have good news for you," L replied cheerfully from the other end.

"What? That this is all some bad dream and when I wake up my life will revert to normal?" Seto couldn't resist throwing in some blatant sarcasm. L probably deserved it for ruining his first attempt at getting some proper sleep in a long time.

"Not quite," L answered casually. "I have sent you all the details from the investigation about the second death. There's no need for you to head down to the crime scene. I think you'll find it… highly interesting."

"How is getting myself involved in this rut interesting?" Seto snorted.

Again, Seto could picture L hiding a faint smile behind his Noa mask as he replied, "You're welcome, Mr Kaiba. Please be on stand-by on your laptop at 1800 JST. We shall meet again. And, I'm sorry I disrupted your sleep. I'm not used to sleeping myself."

"I'm not used to it, either, but if that can drag me away from you, I'll do it," Seto commented bluntly.

L gave a soft chuckle. "1800 JST, Mr Kaiba. Good day."

_Good riddance_, Seto thought darkly as he disconnected the call and crashed back onto his bed. He had barely gotten over his disgust at the outcome of the evidences from the first scene, now he had to start analyzing the second scene?

_I should start compiling a receipt and charge it to L for my professional hieroglyphics services,_ Seto continued to nurse his irritation, even as he got up to head over to his desk and started up his laptop. _Since it's such a rare gift, if I charge 10K for every word I managed to crack, I can kick away that annoying challenge by von Schroeder for Industrial Illusions._

As L had promised, a rather huge file was already awaiting Seto in his inbox. Scowling, Seto downloaded it. It was, once again, an entire file of photos. Seto immediately closed the browser window. This stupid thing can wait until he felt like doing it. Whether or not he cracked this case file held little bearing on his life. Kaiba Corporation is still doing well, finance-wise and image-wise. A bunch of dead pathetic people – a sex worker and a drug addict so far – would do nothing to affect either aspect of his business.

Just as he was about to log off, another email bounced into his inbox. Expecting it to be another email from L, Seto opened it. Wrong assumption. Seto quickly read the contents and let out a huge, defeated sigh. Before he could start dealing with other people's has-been lives, he needed to deal with his own living one.

Seto flipped open his mobile phone and scrolled down to his secretary's number. He should feel slightly guilty he was calling her at four in the morning, but Seto quickly cast the feeling aside. after a few rings, a groggy Misa answered, pretending to sound as awake as possible.

"Misa, wake up and listen to what I'm going to tell you," he instructed. "Pegasus is being a complete ass by holding a project bidding event and only opening it up for couples. In other words if I don't have a partner by then, I'm out of the project race. And I'm not going to lose to that recently engaged von Schroeder."

"Err… are you trying to force me to pretend to be your date, as usual?" Misa barely sounded pleased with the prospect.

"…You don't want to," Seto surmised.

"Mr Kaiba, I already have a fiancé nowadays," she reminded him. "And recently the tabloids have been trying to dig some story about you."

"For what?" Seto asked incredulously.

"The annual Domino City Eligible Bachelor List is coming up, remember? You always top the list. Well, except that there was once where Yugi Mutou beat you to it, but generally, you win."

Seto snorted at the ridiculous notion. "What makes you think I care about that?"

"No, you don't," Misa answered. Seto detected a trace of annoyance creeping into her voice. "And I don't, either. But your other clients care. If the tabloids manage to create a stir about you, in the wrong way, it's going to harm your image, and KaibaCorp's."

"Would you care to be my media correspondent as well, Misa?" Seto asked dryly.

"No, thank you, sir," Misa replied sweetly. "Shall I find you someone suitable to bring as your partner for Mr Pegasus's event, sir?"

"Do whatever you want," Seto said. "As long as she is tolerable, presentable, has a clean background and not a moron, I can manage."

"Mr Kaiba, are you positively sure you don't have some female friends that you can borrow to show off for that few hours?" Misa asked wearily.

"That's an interesting question. Get back to me once and if you found someone." Without waiting to hear his secretary's reluctant sigh in carrying out his orders, Seto disconnected the call.

He glanced again at his bedside clock. Just a few minutes past four. His eyes ticked over to his running laptop, then back to his bed. He contemplated for a while, deciding between the lesser of the two evils. Finally, he closed his laptop lid and shoved it aside. Von Schroeder can wait. L can wait. He had never needed sleep so much in his life before.

XO XO XO XO

"Seto, you're already up?"

The young KaibaCorp CEO glanced up from his laptop screen. Mokuba was already in his school uniform, looking on expectantly at him. Seto frowned slightly as he glanced about him.

"Why? Is there anything wrong?" he asked.

Mokuba shook his head. "No, it's just that… I thought you'd sleep in a little today, since you looked really tired last night."

His older brother said nothing as he diverted his attention back to his laptop. "I'm still alive, don't worry," he commented. He stole a quick glance at the clock on his laptop screen. "Shouldn't I be asking you that question? You're unusually up early for school today."

"Oh, that," Mokuba said casually, as he slid into a seat next to Seto and started on his breakfast of bacon and eggs.

"What that?" Seto asked, throwing his brother a warning sideway glance.

"Nothing, I just felt like being early today," Mokuba replied with an innocent a grin as possible.

His brother was buying none of it. "Did you get into trouble, Mokuba?"

"No, no!" Mokuba insisted. "I just feel like going to school early. And anyway, I'm meeting up with a friend along the way to go to school together."

"A girl," Seto remarked pointedly, actually pausing from typing to look up and eye his brother warily.

"Eh? No! No!" Mokuba denied profusely, and failed. "I mean, yes. But she's just, you know, a friend."

"Make sure it stays that way," Seto grumbled, turning his focus back to his laptop screen. He frowned as he peered closer to examine something on the screen.

Wordlessly, Mokuba crept up behind him to peer over his shoulder. His brother seemed to be examining some photos, possibly from one of the crime scenes. He recalled vaguely that the second body was found at a hill; this seemed like it. He jabbed a finger at the screen, pointing out a peculiar part of the photo.

"Don't touch the screen," Seto muttered, moving to wipe away Mokuba's fingerprints from the crystal screen.

"Who cares about that," Mokuba retorted with a roll of his eyes. "Seto, look at that. The pebbles. Don't they seem to resemble a snake?"

"Huh?" Seto sat back slightly and examined the said part of the photo that his brother had pointed out. "You mean those random pebbles beside the body?"

"But they're not really random," Mokuba argued. Ignoring his brother's earlier warning, he traced the shape of the pebbles by letting his finger glide across the laptop screen in accordance to the arrangement of the pebbles. Seto resisted the urge to slap his brother's hand away from his laptop screen and focused on what his brother was trying to point out to him. "See? The way the smaller pebbles zig-zag, and then there's a larger pebble at the end near the head of the corpse?"

"But why would the murderer – assuming there was one – arrange those pebbles as such?" Seto wondered out aloud. He tilted his head to one side to try to re-examine the photo from another angle. The crime scene photo depicted three glaring things: the pebbles as pointed out by Mokuba, the corpse itself, and a died-out campfire beside the corpse. In other words, nothing spectacularly interesting to note from the scene itself.

Seto turned to a still keen-looking Mokuba next to him and frowned deeper. "And you, aren't you going to get to school and pick up your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend!" Mokuba protested. "Well, not yet, anyway."

"I told you, Mokuba, no girlfriends until you reach high school," Seto warned.

Mokuba made a face as he picked up his bag and started to head out of the dining hall. "You sound like a parent."

"Well, that's because I am one," Seto answered irritatedly, sinking back into his chair to get back to the photo once Mokuba had left. He stole a glance at his watch. He would need to check into the office in less than 3 hours. He sighed. For a split second, Seto wondered if in fact he was secretly fifty year old and not some eligible bachelor CEO in his twenties.

"Snake, huh?" Seto muttered as he stared at the photo again. He proceeded to open up an Internet browser and quickly typed in his search. Jackpot. The answer came to him almost immediately, and keeping half his mind focused on what was written on the website, and the other half quickly analyzing and cross-comparing the photo to his newfound information, Seto finally understood what the entire crime scene was meant to depict.

_Another Egyptian myth crap,_ he snorted, as he let his thoughts run. _The pebbles are meant to represent the snake, Apep. The body is supposed to represent Ra's night barge, so that campfire should be meant to represent the Sun carried by Ra. But what the hell does it all have to do with…_

_[It has been said that as the sun god Ra makes his daily voyage on his barge through the night in the underworld Tuat, he will have to face the terrors and attacks of Apep. Ra battles with Apep every night to ensure that he is able to pass through the Gates, and bring the dawn upon the people. On occasions when a stormy weather occurred, it was believed that Apep's threat had been successful. On occasions when lunar eclipses occurred, it was believed Apep had succeeded in swallowing the barge of Ra._

_Despite the great powers of Ra, no other Egyptian god was so feared by Apep than Set, the god of chaos, desert, and destruction. He is the only one brave enough to stare Apep in the eye, and Apep himself cowers at the sight of the fearful Set. It was he, the great Set, that protects the sun god Ra, placing himself at the prow of the barge and steering and defeating Apep out of the way.]_

"_Our people should fear Set no more. He who is the Lord of the Lower Lands, is also the protector of Ra. And I am named for him._

_I am named for him._

_I am named for him._

Seto flinched as a sharp pain shot through his skull. Why was his dream suddenly re-entering his mind? What did it matter even if he was named after Set? Set was just some strange aardvark-like creature conjured up by the minds of the ancient Egyptians – it had nothing to do with him.

"Mr Kaiba," a voice interrupted his train of thoughts. "Mr Kaiba!"

"What is it?" Seto asked wearily, glancing at his maid.

"There's a call for you," she answered, holding out the phone receiver.

Seto's hand immediately went to pat his pocket. Strangely enough, his phone was safely ensconced in it. Nevertheless, he reached out to pluck the receiver from her hand and quickly dismissed her.

"Seto Kaiba speaking," he greeted the speaker on the other end. His tone could have probably cut ice.

"Good morning again to you, Mr Kaiba," a smooth synthetic voice responded. "Are you having breakfast?"

Seto's face immediately set itself into a scowl. "Why the hell are you bothering me in the morning? Didn't you set an appointment to bug me at 6pm later? Get off my house phoneline."

"Have you been for a medical check-up?"

"...What?"

"Well, from what I gathered about your lifestyle, aren't you rather susceptible to low blood pressure? Crabbiness and the occasional dizziness. Well, it's not that serious," L quickly amended. "But it's still a cause for concern, Mr Kaiba."

"Cut the health talk and get straight to the point," Seto warned.

"Oh, yes," L sounded as if he had not just harassed the CEO with news of potential health concerns, and instead bent on recalling something crucial he needed to tell him. "I believe you're on your laptop now? An email should be coming in."

Seto's eyes ticked to his laptop screen. Sure enough, a pop-up window appeared to announce the arrival of new mail. Seto grunted an assent as a half-hearted answer to whom the world regarded as its greatest detective.

L seemed to not mind his partner's less than polite response. He continued as smoothly as he had started, "If you could just open the file, Mr Kaiba…" He paused for a few seconds, presumably allowing Seto time to load the document. "Your local Mets found this crumpled in the victim's pocket, and the image I sent you is fresh from the lab. It's been resized and reduced for noise as far as possible. I believe you'll find it familiar?"

"Hieroglyphics," Seto retorted dryly. "Isn't that obvious enough? Since it's the only reason I'm dragged into this mess."

"And I thank you for your willingness to cooperate, Mr Kaiba," L answered sincerely. "If you could translate them by our agreed meeting time, I think a lot of people would be grateful, and possibly more lives can be saved."

"More lives?"

"…. There's reason enough to suspect this is a serial killing, Mr Kaiba," L proposed his theory quietly, as if the prospect of an Ancient Egyptian history maniac running around Domino City killing people was the equivalent to an Armageddon. "Anyway, once you manage to sort out the hieroglyphics, please do get back to me. You can call me via your handphone. Please use line two, then line six."

"Don't bother," Seto cut in harshly. "I know what these symbols mean already."

L sounded pleasantly surprised. "You do?"

Seto scowled as he read aloud, "I shall vanquish the One, that Evil One, who blocks the path of Ra. What the hell is that all about?"

L casually step-sided the question. "Mr Kaiba, about the photos I sent you earlier, this morning… was there anything you could make out of it?"

"You mean, apart from the fact that the crime scene was set up to resemble some Egyptian myth about some dude carrying the sun on a boat and getting stopped by a snake?" Seto answered. He punched some keys on his laptop, before telling L quite bluntly, "I sent it to you. You can go read it yourself. I don't have time to explain to you."

It was silent on the other side for a while, before L finally spoke, an enlightened tone tinting his voice, "Mr Kaiba, could it all possibly be... targeted at you?"

"What does a serial killing Ancient Egyptian nerd has to do with me?"

"Oh," L sounded genuinely disappointed his guess was duly rejected by the CEO. "Since your name resembles the god Set, and your ability to read hieroglyphics without reference…"

"I'm a blessed and gifted individual, remember?" Seto cut in.

L let out a soft chuckle. "Well, aren't we all, Mr Kaiba. In any case, thank you for helping me clear up the shroud over this second case. If you look in your house's mailbox now, you'll be able to find an envelope containing details of the third case."

"You know, unlike you, I have proper work to do," Seto reminded him sardonically.

"We'll cancel our initial agreement to converse at 1800 JST today, and shift it to tomorrow morning 1100 JST," L told him cheerfully before disconnecting the call. "Good day, Mr Kaiba."

Once again, Seto Kaiba wished he never allowed himself to be pulled into this mess.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: hey guys, sorry for the rather long break .**

**i've been settling alot of administrative stuff ever since school is going to start.**

**but now, i finally have this chapter up!**

**it's pretty lengthy, but here goes~!**

**much love,**

**fika1603**

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><p>Misa wasted no time to grab hold of her boss the moment he flew into his 18th floor office, ignoring surprised employees who hurriedly bowed to him as he stormed past them and flung open his office door. Misa barely waited for Seto to settle down as she rattled off the entire long string of matters he had to attend to that day. If what was written on his agenda was correct, he had to entertain a rival company dropping by for a 'visit' in a matter of two hours.<p>

After rattling off an entire stretch of schedule, Misa finally paused, took a deep breath and ended off in a rather derisive tone, "And with regard to your 'date' search, Mr Kaiba, I seem to come up with nobody that suits all the traits. Are you positively sure you don't have a female friend somewhere?"

Seto responded without looking up from the files on his desk. "I told you to come with me."

"And I told you I no longer can," Misa answered crossly. "Especially not at an event where paparazzi and godknows who else from the journalism world will be present waiting to pounce on you and your partner."

Seto snickered. "We'll be fine. I know self-defense. My bodyguards know it too. Last I heard you know a fair bit too."

Misa sighed. "Mr Kaiba, this may be a good time to discuss about your sense of humour."

"You just told me I have a mountain of humans to meet today. Also, I seem to not have a partner to go with for Pegasus's event tomorrow night. And I have some more irritating matters from that L weirdo. Do you think I feel like discussing about my sense of humour?" Seto shot back.

"No, sir."

"Good. Now hand me your organizer."

"Eh?"

Seto held out a hand impatiently. "Your organizer."

Misa silently placed the leather-bound book into his hand, while wondering what was it her boss was up to. She had no idea when her boss got himself a pen in the hand, but he did, and without warning he was flipping through and canceling appointments unilaterally. When he was done, he passed it back to her.

"…Sir?"

"Tell all those people I struck out I refuse to see them," Seto commanded. "If they want a moment of my time, at least send me an email attachment with a gist of their ideas. Otherwise, get lost."

Misa quickly scanned the edited notes. "Even Mr von Schroeder? Won't he be already on his way here?"

"First of all, I don't want to hear his name in my office," Seto retorted. "Secondly, I refuse to hear him addressed as 'mister' unless a situation calls for it. Thirdly, he has no need to come see me."

"You genuinely dislike him."

"That's the most genuine answer to your question. Anything else?"

"I will continue looking for your perfect date," Misa responded with a terse, insincere smile.

"No escorts."

"Wouldn't dream of it, sir," Misa sighed as she took her leave. Just as she was about to leave his room, she took a step back and turned towards him. "Mr Kaiba?"

"What?" Seto asked nonchalantly.

Misa walked over to his desk and jabbed a dark blue file on his table. "I forgot to tell you, we have a new employee today. Public relations department. She's one step away from being officially approved to work here."

"And you couldn't have told me this the moment I step into office," Seto muttered. "Okay, hurry up and bring her in so I can use the powers I vested on myself as CEO to approve her as an employee."

"Just a moment, sir," Misa half-ran out of the office in search of the said new employee.

Seto forced himself to bother opening the dark blue file containing the resume of his new employee. Usually he would leave these matters to his human resource department, but ever since an incident a few months back where there was a rival company spy leaking KaibaCorp information, Seto decided to hold a tighter grip on who he employs. He barely needed to read the name printed on the resume to recognize who his new employee would be.

He heard his office door open, and glancing up uninterestedly, he said, "Good morning, Gardner. How is it that a member of the geek squad managed to get herself hired in my company?"

Misa looked at the lithe young woman standing beside her, at her boss, then back at the woman. "I take it the both of you are familiar with each other," she surmised, looking pointedly at her employer.

"I just happen to spend the last two to three years of high school trying to fend off her and her friends' constant interruption into my life," Seto remarked. "It's okay, Misa, you can leave. I'll take it from here."

Tea waited for Seto's secretary to close the door after her, before she finally glared at him and greeted him heatedly, "Well, good morning, Mr Kaiba. I'm sorry that I'll be 'interrupting' your life as you know it for the next few years, but I really would like to have this job."

"Why?"

"Huh?"

"Are you asking to be fired before you're even hired? I want to know the reasons why you're desperate for this job."

"First of all, yes I am desperate for this job," Tea tried to answer as calmly as her sardonic impulse towards him permitted. "I am desperate to pay my college loan, I am desperate to pay my bills and I am desperate to kickstart my career at an honest, reputable company. Even if it happens that the employer and I share a common dislike for each other, I believe in the basic principle of professionalism. Even if I mentally would like to murder the employer, I am willing to restrain myself, smile and try to leave an innocent a remark as far as possible."

Seto looked at her for a while, then without responding to her, dialed a number on his desk phone. "Ichikawa? Get the HR to update their employee data profiles. The new kid will be on her way there soon." Turning back to Tea's expectant gaze, he commented simply, "Keep your murderous thoughts to yourself during meetings or on those rare occasions when I do run into you in the lift."

"Eh, I'm hired?" Tea sounded genuinely surprised. "But-but…. Didn't I just insult you somewhat?"

"So what?" Seto replied indifferently. "You're going to be working for me and my company. Being insulting is a requirement." He handed the dark blue file back to her. "Now get out and get yourself to HR. I have more important things to do."

Tea took the file back graciously from him. "Thanks, Kaiba!"

"You'll address me properly next time," Seto warned. "Now I'm too busy to be nitpicking on your lack of manners. Get lost and get Misa back in."

"Yes, Mr Kaiba," Tea muttered and left the room without another word.

Within moments, Misa stepped back in with a knowing look on her face. Seto pretended not to see it and invited her to take a seat across him as he slid his laptop over so both of them could view the contents.

"This has nothing to do with KaibaCorp per se," Seto told his secretary beforehand as she settled down in front of him. "But I believe I've seen him around here before. Can you confirm it for me?"

Misa raised a questioning eyebrow at her boss, but said nothing. She took a look at the photo on his laptop, anyway. Her brows furrowed momentarily, as if recalling something. Finally, she said, "Isn't that Fujiki Hajime?" At her boss's blank look, she went on, "Fujiki Hajime. Von Schroeder's consultant slash personal assistant. I think he dropped by here quite some time back. And created a huge fuss. Which led to von Schroeder being in your appointment book for today."

Seto grimaced. "He's dead."

"What?"

"He's dead," Seto repeated. "Murdered. Does von Schroeder know about this?"

"I'm not too sure myself," Misa hesitated. "Shall I re-pen von Schroeder's appointment with you for today?"

"…That won't be necessary," Seto responded after some contemplation. "Just try to find out how long Fujiki's been missing from work. If he had any argument with anyone. Anything along those lines."

"Yes, sir," Misa nodded. "But… may I ask why you're so interested in this, Mr Kaiba?"

Seto hesitated. "Just do it."

"Right away, sir."

Once Misa clicked the door close behind her as she exited, Seto proceeded to open the other components of the case file he had downloaded. Compared to the previous two cases, this one was definitely more gruesome, even Seto winced at the sight of the corpse. By the time the Domino MPD had discovered it at an abandoned factory, Fujiki's right leg was gone, and Seto did not have to peer closer at the photograph to know that the white clots at the stump were maggots. If that was all, Seto would have been fine with it. But further details helpfully furnished by L left Seto feeling sick right to the gut. The pathologist had discovered that Fujiki's head, although intact, was empty. In other words, his brain was removed and filled with salt.

Seto hurriedly minimized the photo and clicked open another one. It was a rather ambiguous screenshot of a piece of paper. He glanced at the details written at the side. Lab analysis showed that it was normal paper dumped in tea to give it a papyrus-like image.

Another Egyptian mojo again, Seto thought as he attempted to magnify the image. At the sight of the symbols, he snorted. Go figure.

He sat back slightly, examining the symbols. They felt inherently familiar, as if he had seen or read them before.

If Yugi had never dragged me into this entire destiny to duel each other till we die deal a few years ago, I'd probably have thought myself as crazy for being able to understand hieroglyphics this much, he thought morosely at the same time he was mentally translating the symbols, which gave rise to this:

Your head is severed, you "who are in his Earth".

Your bones are broken.

Your member is cut off.

He is judged, the Dark One, Apophis, enemy of Ra.

"This is getting rather disgusting," Seto commented to himself.

Ra again. Didn't the murderer leave behind a similar message at the camp site? Seto frowned. What could Fujiki Hajime possibly have in common with a soapland worker and a drug addict? If what Misa told him was right, being von Schroeder's personal assistant cum consultant, he should have been well-paid and on a meteoric rise in his career. Unless he had connections with Tina and the drug addict…?

Seto immediately punched the number that connected him to Misa's desk. "Misa, have you gotten the information I requested for?"

"Not all, sir. But I managed to get a list of his friends and close acquaintances."

"Good," Seto declared. "Now I need you to run a quick background check on them. If there is anyone named Tina, or if there is anyone who held a record for drugs possession or drugs consumption, highlight it to me pronto. Understand?"

"Yes sir! And you're in luck, it seems!" Misa actually sounded happy and pleased at her discovery. For a split second Seto wondered if she was treating this as a cheap thrill: her employer stalking a dead person. "I just flip the pages and I came across a Tina. Tina Tanner."

"Tina Tanner, you said?" Seto was suddenly back in full-focus mode. "Can you run a quick background check on her precise relationship with Fujiki?"

"That's easy. They're playmates."

"…Playmates? What, they meet up to play baseball together, do manicures and the likes?" Seto asked incredulously.

"Forgive me for saying this Mr Kaiba, but for a mid-twenty something, you're kind of… not up to date," Misa commented. "They're playmates. You know. Play. Mates." Letting out a frustrated sigh, she finally said, "In other words, he pays her to sleep with him initially. But towards the end she seemed to do it voluntarily for free with no strings attached." When Seto remained silent, she tried again, "Hello? Mr Kaiba? You there? Sir, it's becoming a common thing. Please don't be traumatized."

"I am not traumatized," Seto denied rashly. "Thank you for the information, Misa. Do get back to me about the drugs connection. And also, one more thing."

"Yes, Mr Kaiba?"

"I want you to send out a memo to all the staff prohibiting them from soliciting in one form or another these sort of… activities and places."

"You're the moral code, Mr Kaiba," Misa genuinely sounded impressed.

"Thank you. Now get back to work."

Seto returned his attention to the case at hand. To put it simply, the murderer must be viewing himself as Ra, considered to be the greatest Egyptian god. And perceiving himself as the Sun god responsible for bringing the brightness of the days to earth…

"This is annihilation," Seto muttered as the realization dawned upon him.

It could not be any coincidence that the victims selected were victims most people would condemn: the junk of society, the morally corrupt. Tracking down the next victim would be near impossible. More importantly, why did he get the feeling all these cases were related, or at the very least, made to be related to him?

Seto thought back to L's words earlier about him being named after Set, and recalled hard all he could about the link between Set and Ra. Wasn't Set the one who defeated the snake, the only one that the snake truly feared? Whereas Ra, despite all his greatness, had to give in to Set to help clear his path to bring the sun back out through the Gates.

I'm being baited, Seto suddenly realized. It's a game, against me. But who? And why?

A sudden knock on his door broke his train of thoughts. He glanced up to see Misa entering his room with wide eyes as she held out her organizer for him. Sensing that it must be some appalling news, Seto wasted no time to leap up from his chair and get hold of the organizer from her. The link between Fujiki and the drug addict had come to the fore: despite all his successful front, Fujiki was part of the drugs dealing trade. Seto read further; the name of the kingpin seemed familiar. Suddenly, it all seemed to sink into place.

He shoved the organizer back to Misa and sharply issued his orders, "Re-pen my appointment with von Schroeder. Also, for my 'date' problem, grab hold of the new kid."

"You mean, Tea Gardner?" Misa echoed in disbelief.

"Yes," Seto reiterated firmly. "It's not because I have some special preference for her; it's because I'll need her skills at Pegasus's event this week."

"And Mr von Schroeder? You're serious about re-penning the appointment with him?"

"Of course not, I'd just like to see him in my free time," Seto snapped. "If he's on his way here, tell him to hurry up and come up straight to see me. And once he's in, make sure no one else bothers to disturb me until he's gone. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!" Misa frowned for a while. "Mr Kaiba… this wouldn't have anything to do with Fujiki's death, is there?"

Seto grimaced. "I wish it didn't."

Just as Misa was about to leave the office, Seto's office door swung open to reveal a tall, familiar long-haired figure standing at the door, briefcase in one hand. Seto got up from his seat reluctantly to receive the guest and waved him in, "Schroeder."

"Hello, Herr Kaiba," his business rival replied coolly. "I believe you've been informed by my assistant, Herr Fujiki, that there's something I'd like to discuss with you."

"There's something I'd like to discuss with you, too," Seto answered tersely. "But before that, there's something I'd like to ask you: where's Fujiki?"

von Schroeder seemed surprised at Seto's sudden inquiry. "Why, I believe he applied for leave from yesterday until tomorrow. He wanted to clear his leave, it seems. Why are you suddenly asking after my employee? If you are thinking of trying to pry my employees away from me, Herr Kaiba -"

"I don't give crap for Fujiki," Seto cut in harshly. "I don't accept trash in my company. I'm just asking because I get the feeling that you don't know what happened to him: he's dead."

von Schroeder paled. "He's wha-what?"

"He's dead," Seto repeated. He tossed a print-out of his casefiles to his nemesis. "See for yourself."

"Die... diese ist grausam!" von Schroeder cried out, throwing the papers back at Seto, clearly shocked and traumatised at the brutal image of his assistant's corpse. He turned furiously to Seto. "You! What have you done to him?"

"I haven't done anything!" Seto snapped back. "And I told you, I don't give a crap about your employees. The only reason I know is because I've been sent all these weird things about the recent murder cases in Domino City, and I'm trying to figure out why me, in case you're wondering."

"Aber .. aber Fujiki war ein schöner junger Mann!" von Schroeder spluttered, still aghast at the news that had befallen his number one employee. "Herr Kaiba, Herr Fujiki was a fine young man! One of my best... who could've done it to him?"

"He deserves it," Seto shot back coldly. He tossed the other set of document that Misa had brought in with her organizer earlier. "Your trusted man was a drug dealer, von Schroeder. I just found out. What part of that makes him a fine young man?"

Even though von Schroeder read the document, he shook his head fervently in disbelief. "This cannot be! This is impossible, Herr Kaiba! Herr Fujiki was paid very well, there was no reason for him to get into such crimes!"

"Haven't you ever heard of the phrase, money is never enough?" Seto responded, toning down his sarcasm by great levels. He actually felt sorry for his rival now.

"I cannot believe this..." von Schroeder muttered. He turned to Kaiba sharply. "Surely you mustn't be thinking that I'm involved with this!"

Seto snorted. "Schroeder, you can't even manage legal business well, what makes you think that I'll think you've decided to turn to illegal business to bring your money in?" Seto regarded von Schroeder seriously as he spoke quietly, "Despite everything that you are, you won't get yourself involved in this sort of thing, Schroeder. You have Leon. You won't risk his future in that way. I'm telling you all of this, Schroeder, because i need your confirmation for something."

"What is it?"

"Tullia Kaufmann. I'm sure you know her."

"That's... that's... she used to be my classmate, and she's also Thalia's distant cousin, on her mother's side," von Schroeder replied, clearly perplexed. "Herr Kaiba, what are you trying to say about Tullia? That's she's the culprit?"

"No, she's the next victim," Seto told him bluntly.

"Tullia? No... that's impossible! I know Tullia, such a sweet girl..."

"She's the lynchpin of the drugs trade," Seto cut in mercilessly.

"That's... you must've made a mistake, Herr Kaiba. Tullia... that's impossible!"

"No, it's not. She's the sole heiress to the Kaufmann empire, and this also meant she must have taken over her father's other business. I should know the other business exists because... I helped her father escape the law, a long time ago." Seto fell silent for a while, before turning to face von Schroeder. "I have reasons to believe I'm supposed to be the main target, Schroeder. But I don't want to see you being blamed wrongly for this."

"Me? Blamed for this? But I haven't done anything, Herr Kaiba!"

"No you haven't, but it's your connections," Seto pointed out. "You're friends with Tullia, and all of a sudden you're engaged to Thalia. Your father had connections to Kaufmann as well, towards the end."

von Schroeder flopped wordlessly onto the chair near him, obviously distraught by the avalanche of information Seto had dumped on him. If Seto noticed this, he pretended not to. Casually he slid an envelope towards his rival. von Schroeder took a glance at the envelope, then looked at Seto expectantly.

"If you want to keep her safe, invite Tullia instead of Thalia to Pegasus's event," Seto told him. "Keep Thalia out of the spotlight as far as possible."

"But that's suicide for Tullia!" von Schroeder protested.

"She's bait," Seto corrected him.

"It's still the same. No, I won't endanger Tullia's life like that!"

"She'll be fine!" Seto snapped in frustration. "Nothing will happen to her there. I'll work out something to ensure her safety after that. We just need to pry the culprit out."

"If anything happens to her, I will hold you responsible," von Schroeder warned.

"Good," Seto replied. "I don't have anything else to talk about with you. So if you'd please."

"Very well," von Schroeder gathered his things and got up huffily. "You are responsible for Tullia's life, Herr Kaiba. Let me remind you that. If Tullia loses her life, I will make sure you lose yours."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Yes I admit - I updated this story late. Very late. My apologies!**

**Here's the next part of the story. Hope you guys like it!**

**- fika1603**

* * *

><p>As they walked up the steps leading to the ballroom of Pegasus's ostentatiously grand castle, Seto turned to Tea warningly, "Let me remind you again that this is strictly a PR job for you."<p>

Tea rolled her eyes as she slackened her hold on his arm, "What makes you think that I'll even want to date someone with an ego the size of Jupiter?"

Seto snorted. "The question should be who would want to date you, even." He paused at the entryway of the ballroom to adjust his jacket. Before they stepped in, he muttered, "Now, smile like you've never smiled before."

Before Tea even had time to rearrange her features into her bright, pleasant but utterly professional smile, he had swept them into the grand ballroom. As expected, tabloid reporters and photographers surged towards them, excitedly snapping photos or just being simply excited that the most eligible bachelor in town had turned up for an event with a woman not his secretary in tow. Even though it was obvious Seto detested the attention he was getting, he must have had some inkling of how his best features should be depicted in photographs that would be plastered all over the tabloids the following day. He obliged to pose for the cameras every few steps or so, while politely declining to comment on questions posed about the woman on his arm. Once they got past the reporters' crowd, Tea thought her smile was frozen to her face while her eyes were permanently blinded by the unrelenting camera flashes. It did not help one bit that Seto immediately jerked his arm away from her as well.

"You, can't you be a gentleman for five seconds more or at least until I'm no longer blind thanks to the cameras?" Tea hissed as she pinched the arm of his jacket in a bid to steady herself.

Seto simply flicked her hand off. "If you tear this jacket, I'll deduct from your pay. And that means you'll be unpaid for the next 6 months of your miserable working life."

Luckily for Tea as well as Seto's public image, they were spared a civilized verbal spat when von Schroeder approached them with a delicate-looking woman. Upon seeing the newcomer, Tea immediately felt a stab of jealousy. The woman was the epitome of classical elegance. Not only did she had a svelte but fragile-looking frame, her skin naturally exuded radiance that her simple makeup was rather unnecessary. Her chestnut brown locks complimented the slim, well-fitted gold evening dress she wore. She could not resist stealing a glance at her boss. For someone who professed to having no such interest in dating or much more marriage, even he seemed to be slightly captivated by her.

The woman's gaze ticked over to Tea, perhaps finally noticing her presence beside the taller KaibaCorp CEO. "And who might she be?" she mused in her tinkling voice. "This is not Misa, definitely. And she's such a sweet-looking girl! No wonder the reporters were being rapacious hyenas with you two a while ago."

Seto snorted. "Don't get the wrong idea, Tullia. She's just some new kid in the office. I thought I'd drag her here to show her first-hand how handling KaibaCorp's PR should be."

Tullia must have noticed the indignation that flickered over Tea's features upon hearing his words, because she retorted gently, "Seto, you're being too crass. As usual, of course. I wonder if I'll ever see the day when you address women in a much gentler fashion."

"Well, with such a livid personality, I doubt Herr Kaiba would ever get married," von Schroeder interjected snidely.

Tullia smiled, holding back a giggle as she touched von Schroeder's arm lightly. "Ziegfried, let's not curse Seto unnecessarily, shall we? You still need to find a way to make up to Thalia for inviting me instead of her to this event." Seto quietly chuckled at her words. Noticing his reaction, she turned to face him as she held out a hand gracefully, "Let's show Ziegfried you're not as hopeless as he cursed you to be. A dance with me before business starts, shall we?"

If Tea had not been secretly watching her employer's expression throughout the entire conversation, she would have missed the faint flicker of a genuine smile that crossed his face as he accepted Tullia's invite and led her away from Tea and von Schroeder. The annoyance that crossed Tea's features in turn was quickly picked up by von Schroeder. He offered a glass of wine to her, commenting, "Fraulein, you wouldn't happen to be irritated by Herr Kaiba, would you?"

"Of course not," Tea responded rather testily. "I just can't stand his ego. Right now it seemed as if it's inflated and filled up the entire room. And all it takes is for a pretty girl to invite him for a dance."

"Well, Tullia is a sweet girl," von Schroeder added on as he observed his business rival seemingly enjoying his dance with Tullia. "Though probably it's probably for the better I chose Thalia for me instead of her."

"Why? So Tullia can break the curse you placed on my employer?" Tea's cynicism had not faded one bit.

"If it is so, then it's a good thing, isn't it? Just look at them! They're so perfectly matched. But ah, I wouldn't want it to be so, because Herr Kaiba will have more things to contend with unnecessarily..."

Tea looked at him incredulously. "Are you actually concerned about my employer?"

"Well," von Schroeder started, pursing his lips for a while as he thought of the best way to phrase his thoughts. "I wouldn't say concerned, but I enjoy the rivalry with Herr Kaiba too much to risk it being dissolved due to unnecessary links he might draw himself into if he were to end up with Tullia." He caught sight of Tea's perplexed look, and concluded, "It appears to me Herr Kaiba did not fill you in on the agenda for today. So I shall assume he has no desire for you to know, and it shall be something just between the three of us."

If Tea's curiosity was instinctively heightened upon hearing von Schroeder's cryptic words, she had no opportunity to probe further. Seto and Tullia were making their way back to them, both seemingly pleased with the brief dancing session they had. For a moment Tea thought if her employer did not just want to trade partners with von Schroeder.

"Ziegfried, you must go and dance!" Tullia urged him excitedly. She cast a look at Tea. "Miss..?"

"Gardner," Tea replied quickly. "Tea Gardner."

"Tea? It's a beautiful name! Greek for 'goddess'. How apt!" Tullia commented sincerely. She turned to Seto half-chidingly, "How could you just snub a woman with a name like that, you silly man." She then turned back to von Schroeder. "Ziegfried, be a man and take her for a dance! How could you just stand here and not invite a woman to dance!"

Von Schroeder regarded his future cousin-in-law wearily. "Tullia, truly, which era do you live in?"

"An era when men are chivalrous," she replied smoothly with a smile. "Take her for a spin, dear Ziegfried." Sensing both his and Tea's hesitance, she reached out for Seto's hand and held it loosely, "Seto and I will go as well. We can switch partners halfway. Come on, Ziegfried. It'll be fun! Tea?"

"The three of you can go ahead," Seto interjected, shattering the excitement build-up Tullia had worked at. "I've done enough obligatory dancing for the night."

"What obligatory dance?" Even in her mock appalled reaction, Tullia was able to execute it light-heartedly. She gripped his hand playfully. "No, you are going to go for another spin. And you are going to be the chivalrous gentleman that I'm teaching you to be by taking Tea this time round."

Seto stared at her in disbelief. "Don't be ridiculous, Tullia."

"I'm not," she insisted. "Tea's your date for the night. At least be a gentleman and take her for a dance."

"It's perfectly fine, Miss Tullia," Tea declined kindly. "I'd prefer it much better if he doesn't."

"I'm glad you realize it's not part of your PR duty for the night," Seto shot back.

"Seto! Don't be so crass!" Tullia chided him again, pinching his arm lightly for added effect.

"Are you two secretly dating?" Tea blurted out the question that had been playing on the periphery on her mind since just now.

Tullia and Seto froze momentarily, before Tullia broke out into a hearty laughter. "Should we tell her?" she directed the question to the annoyed-looking Seto.

However, the explanation never came, because at that precise moment, the host of the event emerged on the makeshift stage at the center of the ballroom with what appeared to be a giant Bingo set. Almost unanimously, the four of them rolled their eyes at yet again another flamboyant demonstration by Maximillian Pegasus. The said host clapped his hands to gain the attention of all his guests. Once all of their attention was on him, he spoke, "Thank you everyone for attending my little soiree! As you all know, I've limited this event to the first 25 business figures who had promptly RSVP-ed me and acknowledged that they'll be coming with their partners. I don't see any secretaries in my midst, so I'm going to assume no one is cheating to be here."

The last line drew laughter from the other 23 pairs in the hall. While von Schroeder and Tullia afforded themselves stifled giggles, Seto simply scowled. It was evident the jibe was aimed at him. Tea, meanwhile, tried to obscure her glee at seeing her employer being singled out anonymously as an object for Pegasus's joke by maintaining a poker face.

Pegasus continued, "And to make things more fun and exciting, I have decided that I'm going to decide on who to give my new project to with the help of this wonderful, supersized Bingo machine. I'm sure all of you, having received the confirmation invitation upon RSVP would have noticed the numbers written on the back of the envelope. Those numbers correspond to the numbers I have here in this machine. So when I press the lever, and a numbered ball tumbles out, and it happen to be yours, congratulations my dear boy or girl! You have earned the contract!"

Inevitably, Pegasus's announcements elicited excited murmuring and buzz among his guests present. Everyone except Seto, apparently. The KaibaCorp CEO was throwing a death glare at Pegasus and his Bingo machine. It did not take a mind-reader to figure out what was running through his mind at that time.

"Anddddd... the lucky number for the night is..."

Pegasus was just about to reach into the drop-box the ball had tumbled into when the entire ballroom was plunged into darkness. Both Pegasus's and his guests panicked shrill screams were woven into one. In the dim conditions, most of the guests were running in scatters towards the door, pushing and shoving each other in the process. Their panic increased threefold when they realised that the door had been locked as part of the automatic security process.

In the midst of all the chaos, Tea could make out the faint silhouette of her employer and von Schroeder frantically searching around for something or someone. But just as the lights went out, they came back on again, and now, Tea could clearly see the faint semblance of fear shadowing her employer's face. Von Schroeder had gone pale. Tullia was missing.

"Herr Kaiba, you promised..." von Schroeder started shakily.

"I know that!" Seto snapped, shoving von Schroeder aside. He flicked his phone open and made a call. "Secure the entire perimeters of this place. Every single exit and entrance in and out of the castle. Don't let anyone leave." He cast a sharp eye at von Schroeder. "Are you going to be a wimp and just stand there?"

"I will look for Tullia, and I will get her back safely," von Schroeder responded testily. "Since it is clear that I cannot trust you to secure her safety, Herr Kaiba."

"I have as much reason as you do to see to it that Tullia is safe," came Seto's equally icy retort. "So you can just continue standing here and whine about how you should be the hero. I'm leaving."

"Wait, Mr Ka-" Tea barely had time to interrupt when Seto stalked away angrily, ignoring her protestation. Despairingly, she turned to von Schroeder. "Mr von Schroeder, if you'd like, we could look for Tullia together."

"We will find her," von Schroder attested grimly. "And I will make Herr Kaiba pay for this."


	6. Chapter 6

_Tullia, come on, where are you?_ Those words kept flashing through his mind, even as he walked back into the castle, through the long corridors which were supposedly out of bounds. Unfortunately for Pegasus, he was in no mood to accept that fact.

He had rushed out to check with his men guarding the perimeters of the castle. They had been standing there for quite some time, and no one seemed to have entered or exited the compound. That could only mean Tullia was somewhere in the castle – whether that fact was consoling or more worrying, it was hard to tell.

This stupid place is covered with more antique junk than I could ever care for, he remarked to himself in his mind, increasingly getting irritated by the apparent fact that there was no way someone could have hidden Tullia in some secret compartment in the castle without unsettling the antiques. How many empty knight armours did Pegasus need to accompany him? Despite his disinterest for antiques, Seto was still able to recognize which period some of the antique collection belonged to. Qing China, Victorian England...

_Egypt_, he finished off grimly as he came face-to-face with a painting of the Millennium slab. _As always. What did I ever do in my past life if I even had one.._

Seto reached out a hand to trace the ridged edges of the painting's frame. Surely there must be something here that could unearth a clue, or trigger open some secret passageway. But all along the cool metal frame, he could not detect any hidden buttons or hidden compartment. His eyes landed on the Eye of Horus etched on the middle of the pyramid. He peered closer. The golden outline of the eye did not look like part of the painting. He was just about to press it when something in his jacket buzzed.

He sighed as he answered, "Has anyone ever told you that I'm a CEO and that you need to book an appointment to even make calls with me?"

The synthetic voice on the other end was in no mood for humour. "Mr Kaiba, I understand that the next targeted victim is lost."

"I'm not even going to ask you how you knew that."

"Mr Kaiba, this is no time for jokes," L answered rather coldly.

"Look, my f- Tullia is missing and her life is in danger! What makes you think I have time for jokes?" Seto snapped back. "If you have nothing better to disturb me with, then hang up."

"I am calling precisely to help you locate her," L told him pointedly. "Mr Kaiba, I believe you're now in the vicinity of some Ancient Egyptian items?"

"How did you – never mind. Yes, I am. What now?"

"The entryway to the Underworld is the eye of Horus. Can you see it?"

Seto scowled. "I am staring at it. Or was, before you interrupted me with the call."

"Press it," L urged. Seto duly did so, and not too far off from his left, a section of the corridor's wall swivelled to reveal a flight of staircase. Sensing that Seto had discovered it, L continued in a much quieter tone, "Mr Kaiba, you need to hurry. I am not confident if time isn't running out for Ms Tullia."

"Tell me something I don't know," Seto muttered and hurriedly disconnected as he made his way over to the stairs.

He peered down. There seemed to be some light glowing at the bottom of the stairs. Carefully he made his way down the flight of stairs, careful to not let his shoes clack even a single milidecibel against the concrete. He had enough sense of self-defense, but it was not something he particularly enjoyed doing, and in any case he would rather avoid it.

His apprehension about the use of force seemed pointless. There was no one there in the flickering chamber that resembled a threat. The only person apart from him in the chamber was Tullia, who was lying on a miniature stone barge sculpture. She appeared to be unharmed.

Seto removed his jacket to place it over her, when he noticed that he was wrong. A long, deep laceration ran along the inner part of her arm, with blood streaming down from her arm to the small pile of blood-soaked grass on the floor. Seto placed a hand on her cheek; it was nearly ice-cold. Seto swore. He needed to tie a tourniquet to her wound to stem the blood flow, but it was too long and too deep to be stopped by either his tie or his jacket.

"Hold on," he told the unconscious girl gently. Pressing her wound hard against her body, and pressing her body hard against his chest as he lifted her up, Seto found himself hoping that she would last at least until they reached the hospital.

XO XO XO XO

Tea sighed as she turned around for the umpteenth time to address her employer's rival, purposely swinging the makeshift torchlight which was in reality her phone. "Mr von Schroeder, if you're going to keep hiding behind me and being scared of the knight armours, then it's better we just go back to the ballroom and wait for Mr Kaiba to come back."

Once again, for the umpteenth time, von Schroeder straightened his back, tossed his head back haughtily and replied, "No! We must look for Tullia! And I am not scared of the knight armours. It's just that they're unsettling."

Tea rolled her eyes as she continued to proceed down the dimly lit corridor. Initially, they were only permitted to search the western wing of the castle. But along the way, noticing that the two men Pegasus had stationed to keep visitors out of bounds from the eastern wing were already crumpled on the floor, they tried their luck by trespassing the other half of the castle. As expected, it was dimly lit – visible enough to see the art hanging along the walls, but not bright enough to illuminate the entire corridor. Quite annoyingly for Tea, the dim lighting also resulted in excess shadows being cast over the empty knight armours, creating a far more creepy atmosphere than desired by von Schroeder.

They were about to proceed another step when they heard soft footsteps coming from in front of them. Tea could have sworn she heard von Schroeder squeak as he ducked to hide behind her. Hastily she switched off her makeshift torchlight and dragged von Schroeder to press themselves against the wall. With any luck, if the owner of the footsteps was the perpetrator, they could avoid being caught and jump on him.

With every second the footsteps was getting more audible. The sound was rather light, as if the person was rushing to leave the area but not quite in a panic. Tea counted under her breath, her fingers fumbling for the light function on her cellphone. Maybe she could jump in front of the person and momentarily blind him or her. Tea braced herself. When she sensed the footsteps just being four or five steps away from their hiding place, she immediately jumped forward, holding out her lit cellphone in front of her.

"What the hell are you doing, Gardner," came the scowling comment. Awkwardly, Tea snapped her cellphone shut and came face-to-face with her employer. Von Schroeder shuffled out from his hiding place.

"Mr Kaiba," she addressed him weakly. "It's you."

"Tullia!" von Schroeder exclaimed, pushing Tea aside as he rushed forward to the unconscious girl n Seto's arms. He obviously saw the blood staining Seto's shirt, and he glared at his rival. "Herr Kaiba, what is the meaning of this? What happened to Tullia?"

"You can see for yourself," Seto retorted as he sidestepped von Schroeder and continued towards the exit at the end of the corridor. "Out of my way."

"Wait, Herr Kaiba! Where are you taking her?"

"Do you expect me to voluntarily give you a friendly phone call, Schroeder," he remarked without turning around. "Gardner, you're done for the day."

Von Schroeder cast a desperate glance at Seto and an apologetic look at Tea as he made his decision. "I am sorry, Miss Gardner. But it appears I have no choice but to go along with Herr Kaiba. But I could escort you out until you manage to get a taxi."

"It's perfectly alright, Mr von Schroeder," Tea replied. She looked on worriedly at her employer and Tullia. "I'm used to catching the cab on my own. Please, hurry after them. I hope Miss Kaufmann will be alright."

"She'd better be," von Schroeder remarked darkly. With a quick bow towards her, he took his leave. "If you could excuse me, Miss Gardner."

Tea nodded in appraisal. All the while watching the German businessman rushing to catch up with his Japanese counterpart, she could not help wonder about the agenda that von Schroeder had let slip earlier on. Clearly it had something to do with Tullia, but what? What was it about Tullia that drove both Kaiba and von Schroeder to be so protective of her? Tea frowned. Tullia being a common love interest of the two men was a possibility – a rather unexpected possibility, seeing how Kaiba was like, but still a possibility nevertheless. But even if it was so, there was something much more to the entire situation.

Tea sighed. Maybe she was just thinking too much, and maybe she was just attempting to pry herself into matters that were none of her concern. Whatever her employer did in his private time, for example, was none of her concern. Taking out her cellphone, she scrolled through for the taxi hotline. With all of these madness happening around tonight, nothing sounded more comforting than returning home to normalcy.

XO XO XO XO

"Aren't you going to put her down, Herr Kaiba?" von Schroeder probed rather resentfully, eyeing Seto who was still holding on tightly to Tullia.

"What's your problem, Ziegfried?" Seto shot back. "You couldn't possibly be jealous, can you?"

The moment the three of them stepped out of the doors to Pegasus's castle, Seto immediately ordered for the backseat of his limousine to be cleared in order to accommodate the three of them. That and the fact that he didn't want Ziegfried to go about peeking at his work in the laptop installed in his limousine.

"We're at your mansion, Herr Kaiba?" von Schroeder remarked in disbelief once the limousine door opened.. "What about Tullia? She's badly hurt!"

"So?"

"So, she needs proper medical attention! Herr Kaiba, you own a hospital. Surely it would do you no harm to bring her there for treatment!"

"Like you said, I own the hospital," Seto responded with a smirk. "Why do I need to bring her there when the entire team can come here for her?" Seeing von Schroeder's ashen face, he relented slightly. "All the necessary experts and equipment are already set up in the guest room. It's much safer here than somewhere public like the hospital."

True to his word, once Seto, carrying Tullia, and von Schroeder reached the guest room, there was already a team of medical staff on stand-by. Both the men stood back as the doctors and nurses rushed to stem the blood and conduct speedy checks on her. When the initial check-up was done, one of the medical staff came over to report to them.

"Mr Kaiba, there doesn't seem to be any contusions or broken parts, just the gash on her arm," the doctor informed them. "We're working to close the wound and disinfect it. But other than that, you can take my word that Miss Kaufmann will be fine. Perhaps it would be better if the both of you could please wait outside until everything is done?"

Seto cast a long look at Tullia. "I'll take your word for it, doctor. See to it that she'll be fine."

"Yes, Mr Kaiba."

XO XO XO XO

Seto peeled off his blood-soaked shirt and dropped it into the laundry bag at the side of his attached bathroom. He was about to step into the adjacent bathroom when he seemed to recall something, and fished for his cellphone in his jacket.

"Good evening, Mr Kaiba."

"How did you know where Tullia was?" Seto demanded.

"I've been reading up on Egyptian mythology on my own accord, Mr Kaiba," L replied quietly. "I figured you probably wouldn't have enough time on your hands to do so." He paused for a while. "Mr Kaiba, I suppose you could already tell the pattern the murders are being committed in?"

"Let me see, I've been reading hieroglyphics each time you gave me a call. It doesn't take a genius like me to figure it out, L."

"Mr Kaiba, could you care to describe to me the injuries sustained by Miss Tullia?" L sidestepped the obvious jibe directed in a sardonic manner at him quite deftly by refocusing the subject matter. As Seto described Tullia's cuts to him, L remained quiet, perhaps pairing up the specifics of the attack with some Ancient Egyptian lore he had been reading. Once Seto was done, L responded with a single, soft reply, "Hathor."

"Hat what?" Seto echoed incredulously.

"Hathor," L repeated. Seto could hear the shuffling of some papers in the background. The weirdo wasn't lying; he really did research. L continued, "The Egyptian goddess Hathor. An evolution from Sekhmet, the eye of Ra."

Seto scowled. "And as I mentioned so many times, I didn't particularly study about dead goddesses and deities."

L acted as if he had not heard Seto. "Sekhmet was the epitome of destruction, under Ra's order. Until Ra decided to stop her by flooding the fields with red beer. Obviously," L paused, ending off softly, "the murderer decided that it would be better to drain a drug lynchpin of her blood to 'flood the fields'."

"Are you saying that whoever this... Ra-inspired murderer is, is doing all of this to instil justice?" the words sounded stupid even in Seto's head.

"'He was a man who saw wrong and tried to make it right.'" L quoted quietly. "Mr Kaiba, I have enough reasons to fear you're the main target of this Ra... after all, no one was the closest an ally –"

"Nor an enemy to Ra than Set was," Seto finished grimly.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: another chapter in! hope you guys like it! (:**

* * *

><p>"No! Let me go, let me go!"<p>

Seto awoke with a jolt. Setting his laptop aside (he had fallen asleep while working, again), he rushed over to a sleeping, hysterically crying Tullia. He shook her shoulders roughly to wake her up, "Tullia! Tullia!"

His sharp voice jolted Tullia out of her nightmare, and the moment she saw a worried-looking Seto leaning over her, she flung her arms around his neck. Seto froze momentarily at her unexpected action, but cautiously placed a comforting hand on her back, anyway.

"Tullia, you were dreaming," he told her quietly. "What happened during the blackout? Where did you go?"

"I'm scared, Seto," she cried into his shirt, gripping it more tightly. "I'm so scared."

"It'll be okay," Seto attempted to sound as comforting as possible. "Just stay here. I have enough security around the house to keep you safe, no matter what Ziegfried says."

Tullia pulled away from him, and looked at him straight in the eye. "No. No, it's not me I'm scared about. It's you. I'm scared for you."

Seto stared at her, perplexed. "For me? Why?"

Tullia shook her head, her hair swaying gently with the movement. "It's not me they're after, Seto." She placed a hand lightly on his cheek and continued with a shaky voice, "It's you. They're after you, Seto."

"It's okay, Tullia. I pretty much had that figured out," he grimaced.

"But still..." Tullia's word faltered as she leaned in again to give him a hug. "Seto, I don't want anything to happen to you."

"I'll be fine," Seto replied reassuringly. He looked down at her, studying her bandaged arm. "How's the arm?"

"It'll scar horribly," Tullia barely concealed her devastation at the sight of the heavy bandages across the whole of her arm. She reached out her free hand and began tugging at the bandages.

Quickly, Seto flicked her hand away from the bandage. "What are you doing? Leave it there."

"No," Tullia retorted stubbornly. "I want to see it. If it's going to scar, I want to see it."

Seto said nothing. Satisfied that there was no objection from him, Tullia hurriedly unravelled her bandages. The sight of her scar made her cry out again.

"I told you to le –" Seto's admonition was cut short when his eyes fell upon the lacerations on her arm. He gently touched her wrist. "Let me see," he requested softly.

"No."

"Let me see."

Tullia relented, turning her face away so she would not have to bear looking at the hieroglyphics lacerated on her arm. Seto examined the hieroglyphics, deciphering them to be:

_And Sekhmet turned into Hathor with the powerful hands of Ra._

_Blinded by the brilliance of the warm light of the Sun_

_The God of Chaos_

_Descend now into the Darkness._

"Stop staring at it," Tullia spoke quietly, pulling her arm away and pressing them to her chest, as if the lacerations would disappear if she did so. "It's ugly, I know."

"It doesn't matter to me," Seto replied.

"But..."

Tullia did not need to finish her sentence; Seto could already tell what it was all about. He reached out for her hand and squeezed it kindly. "I'm not going to leave you," he said firmly. "I promised your father. Most importantly, I promised you and I promised myself. I'll get down to the bottom of this, but first, I need to know the truth. How wide was your drugs network?"

"My what?"

"Your drugs network. You don't have to hide any kind of business from me, Tullia. I knew everything from your father."

Tullia bit her lip, contemplating her response. "Last I heard, it's doing fine," she assented reluctantly. "I try my best to disassociate myself with that side of the business... I've been trying to scale it down to near-negligible but..." She looked up and forced a weak smile. "You know how shareholders are. It's hard to just... convince them to let go of the cash agent."

"So it's still going strong," Seto surmised.

"I..yes, it is."

"Fujiki Hajime. Do you know him?"

Tullia looked surprised at the mention of his name. "Hajime? Yes, I do. Frustrating when it comes to work, but he rakes in good contacts and he's Ziegfried's personal assistant, so I have to forgive him for that. Why'd you suddenly ask?"

Seto studied her for a few seconds. "He's dead."

A glimmer of shock flickered in her eyes, as she raised a hand to cover her mouth. "B-but how? Why?"

"The police have yet to find out," Seto replied simply as he got up. "I thought I'd tell you about him, since I'm pretty sure you might know a prominent person like him down your _drug_ line."

Tullia turned her face away from him and retorted angrily, "Don't act as if you're above links with the underworld, Seto."

"At least I changed," Seto remarked coldly as he left the room.

XO XO XO XO

He dunked the last of the sugar cubes into his cup of hot chocolate, and stirred it carefully with the spoon. Once he was certain it had dissolved, balancing the plate with the filled cup on top of it with his right hand, he huddled back to his seat. Wataru had come in to check on him from time to time to see if he needed anything, with a hint towards a futon for him to grab a couple of winks. But the old man had always left feeling secretly disappointed after he refilled the sweets station for the odd, eccentric detective.

With the case developing at such a rate, there was simply no time to rest, even if he wanted to. Of course, Seto Kaiba had done his part as well as he could – begrudgingly, perhaps, but he had helped in piecing the hieroglyphic puzzles together, and he had certainly swooped in in the nick of time to prevent what would have been the fourth murder from occurring. But as the stubborn-nosed, sardonic young man had repeatedly assured him, he was a CEO with a company to run, not a detective. The deduction work needed to be done by L.

Holding the cup with both hands, L brought it up to his lips as he perused several readings he had gotten hold of with regard to Ancient Egyptian deities and rituals. He had circled out parts mentioning Ra, and he had boxed out sections dedicated to Set. On another piece of paper, he had paralleled the outcome of the three murder cases with events, symbolism or rituals as per Ancient Egyptian beliefs. In short, the symbolisms were everywhere, derived from different variation of the perception of the Ancient Egyptian deities' positions over different eras. Tina Tanner's murder was perhaps a mere exemplification of the judging of the deeds of right and wrong. Her popularly stigmatized profession must have been thought of by the murderer as deserving of being devoured by Ammut. Perhaps more important was that the murder acted as a foreshadowing of things to come. The next victim's death further illustrated the reminder: his death being compared by the murderer to the death of a snake. The poisonous snake bite bore an allegory to the tale of Cleopatra, but L doubted if the tale held any clue to the case. More in line with the reasoning would be the murderer seeing himself as having stopped Apep in the form of the drug addict.

L frowned as he moved on to the third victim. A decapitated leg, and an emptied head. He picked through his papers carefully, lifting them up to him one by one with his index finger and thumb, until he came across something relevant. Again, the third murder bore an allegory to another prominent historical figure: Tutankhamun this time around. An emptied head was nothing more than part of a typical mummification process to dessicate the body. He could not think of any possible significance to the death, apart from the ominous hieroglyphics left behind: I shall vanquish the One, that Evil One, who blocks the path of Ra. Perhaps yet another reminder, as was the case with Tina?

The section for the fourth victim was largely blank, apart from a few lines about the tale of Hathor. L rocked lightly on his seat. He had a strong intuition these murder cases would all tie down to Seto Kaiba, but as men of strong reasoning, neither he nor Seto Kaiba would freely divulge nor accept such an unsubstantiated conclusion.

The swivelling monogrammed wallpaper on his computer desktop gave way to a pop-up screen. L studied the number, punched in some actions for the computer to perform rather clumsily using just the index fingers of each hand, and waited. Soon, he heard the voice he had become accustomed to for the past few days.

"Hello, Mr Kaiba," L greeted politely.

As usual, the CEO was in no mood for niceties. "What have you got so far?"

L duly filled him in. Surprisingly, Seto Kaiba listened patiently on the other end. When he was done, his unwilling partner's only reply was an audible, purposeful snort, "Old news. Someone's after me, and all I care about is knowing who."

"Is there anyone that you can think of?"

"If you're talking about an Egyptian history freak dying to take me out, then there's Pegasus, for starters."

"Pegasus?" L echoed. "Maximillian J. Pegasus?"

"So you do know him. That's great. Do your detective job and find out what he wants from me."

L was bemused at the KaibaCorp CEO's bossiness. "Mr Kaiba, are you always this demanding and strict with your employees?"

"Of course not, I invite them in for a cup of tea before telling them kindly that they're fired," Seto replied, irritated. He paused. "I need you to do a run-check on someone's background. Tullia Kaufmann."

"In all honesty, Mr Kaiba, I've actually been doing that."

"Good."

"Mr Kaiba."

"What?"

"Your relationship with Tullia Kaufmann... what is it?"

The other end fell silent. "That's your job, isn't it?" Seto replied harshly.

"Which is precisely why I'm asking you directly, Mr Kaiba."

"I refuse to answer," Seto flatly reiterated his stand. "In any case, once you figure out who's the one targeting me, leave it to me. I'll take him out myself."

The line went dead.

XO XO XO XO

Seto flipped his phone shut and placed it calmly on the dining table. The cook had been kind enough to prepare him some light supper of French onion soup, at the autonomous request of his bodyguard Roland, strangely enough. He had once asked that bodyguard of his, some time ago, why he was willing to risk and do so much for him. Roland's answer was simple and honest: despite his temper, he actually treated his employees well.

_Speak of the devil_, Seto mused as he caught sight of his bodyguard coming in from the entryway. "How's Mokuba?"

"Safely and soundly asleep, sir."

Seto nodded at Roland's words as he helped himself to another spoonful of soup. Roland peered curiously at his employer from behind his sunglasses. Seto sensed his eyes on him. Without looking up from his soup, he asked, "What's the matter?"

Roland hesitated. "I think, sir, I should be the one asking you the question."

The young CEO stiffened slightly. "I'm just concerned about general security of the estate," he responded aloofly, setting his spoon down and getting up to leave. "But I trust that your men know their job."

"Yes, sir! We do!"

Seto said nothing as he headed up the grand stairway to the bedrooms. Roland started as if to hurry after him, but Seto waved him off as he made his way to the corridor. He paused outside the first room, hesitating as if to peer inside. In the end, he did. Tullia was already asleep, perhaps due to the medication, or perhaps the night's events had drained her. Seto went up to her sleeping form, lightly touched her head, mumbled an apology and turned off the lights as he left the room.

The next room he entered surreptitiously was Mokuba's. As he saw the messy room illuminated by the warm glow from the night light, Seto afforded himself a small, wry smile. His brother was sprawled on his four-poster bed, pillows and covers all over the place. Seto quietly picked up strewn pieces of clothing and placed them in the laundry basket as he made his way over to his brother to at least throw back the covers on him so he won't freeze in the night's chill. As Seto did so, for a split second, the thought of a possible attempt on his life occurred to him, and Seto wondered how his brother would fare if anything happened to him. With Tullia, he knew that despite her words, she would do just fine without him. But Mokuba...

His brother stirred, jolting him out of his thoughts. "Seto? What are you doing?" his brother muttered sleepily.

Seto frowned. "Making sure you're sleeping, of course." Gently pushing a pillow towards his brother, he told him, "Go back to sleep."

"Uh. Goodnight Seto."

"Yeah."

Seto cast a long look at his brother again before retiring to his room. _He'll be fine,_ he told himself. _No matter what happens, he'll be fine._


	8. Chapter 8

**

A/N: new chapter up! Apologies once again for the very slow update. Hope you guys like this one too! Read and review! Hearts and Regards, fika1603

**

He strolled along the corridor, adjusting his sleeves as he did so. He cast a quick glance at the room nearest to his on the right. The door was wide open, and the sheets were made. Good, that meant Mokuba was already awake and avoided a morning nag by him. He made a turn and was about to head down the stairway when he ran into one of his maidservants carrying a breakfast tray up to the bedroom corridors. The relatively young maidservant afforded him a polite bow and morning greeting, and Seto grunted one in reply.

"Hold on," he suddenly said. "This breakfast tray, is it for Miss Kaufmann?"

His maidservant was surprised that her usually non-communicative employer chose to address her directly that morning, and heartily answered in the affirmative.

"I'll take it to her," he decided, taking the tray from her hands smoothly. "Open the door to her room, and after that you may leave."

"Yes, Mr Kaiba," the maidservant duly obeyed, scuttling away the moment her employer eased himself into the room and closed the door behind him.

Seto carefully set the tray on the bedside table, and gently seated himself at the edge of the bed beside Tullia's sleeping form. He moved as if to wake her up, but as if she could sense his presence, she woke up on her own. At the sight of Seto seated beside her, she smiled graciously.

"Morning," Seto greeted her almost sombrely.

"Good morning," she greeted him in a much more cheerful fashion befitting a morning greeting. Her eyes landed on the breakfast tray on the table beside her, and perked up even more. "Breakfast in bed. I haven't had that for eternity."

"Have you ever?" Seto responded dryly. "Anyway," He reached into his jacket's pocket and held out a small box for her. "It's a bit late, though."

Curious, Tullia plucked it from his hand. The moment she opened it, her eyes widened, and she shut it again, staring at Seto in shock. "Th-thank you," she managed to splutter out. "Seto, thank you so much. It's beautiful. But I thought you once said that you'd never-"

"It took me ages to find it in the antique store and have it fixed up," he interjected, taking the box back from her hand and removing the object inside it. "Come on, let me put it on for you."

After he did so, Tullia could barely conceal her beam as she held it out to admire it. "It's really really pretty! Thank you, Seto! Thank you so much!"

Without warning, she leaned in to give him a peck on the cheek. Seto managed to scowl, "Don't do such things, Tullia. I'm heading to the office."

Tullia rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, I'm not wearing lipstick. A simple peck won't stain your cheek."

The corners of his mouth seemed to twitch a little in amusement, but Seto maintained his aloof demeanour as he got up to straighten his suit. "I'll send you home when I get back," he told her before he exited her room. His eyes darted to his gift to her. "And don't lose that. Nearly cost me a fortune."

Tullia merely laughed and grinned at him.

XO XO XO XO

He stepped into the vast expanse of his office on the entire 27th floor only to see a certain long-haired nemesis patiently seated outside his doors, sipping tea beside his secretary. Seto Kaiba sighed as he moved to enter his office with a conscious pretext of pretending not to see his guest. He resisted a smirk when his guest addressed him in an offended manner, "Kaiba boy, where's your manners?"

"Definitely not with me this morning," Seto fired a rejoinder over his shoulder. He turned to his secretary, "I thought I told you he's on my banned list."

Misa set down her glasses and glared at her employer in annoyance. "He is, but you happen to win the contract. Do I turn down a contract on your behalf?"

Seto scowled. "I'll hear out what this wonderful contract is all about."

Maximillian Pegasus leapt to his feet in glee. "Well then, Kaiba boy, let's go in to discuss about it! I'm positive you'll just absolutely love it!"

The younger CEO couldn't resist passing a snarky comment. "I wonder whose wonderful office you're in. In any case, feel free to shamelessly make yourself feel at home."

Pegasus chuckled as he seated himself across Seto at the latter's desk. "Have I told you I enjoy your sense of humour, Kaiba boy?"

"Have I told you I enjoy entertaining thoughts of setting your hair on fire, Pegasus?" Seto responded in kind. "Anyway, what is this wonderful project you'd like to gift me? I think I have fifteen minutes to be cordial with you."

"How welcoming of you," Pegasus said in his bemused manner. He placed a red folder on Seto's desk before proceeding seriously, "I want to set up a school."

Seto looked at him blankly. "A what?"

"A school! You know, a place where children go to to study and play with friends?" Pegasus even added on innocently, "Oh I forgot, you neither went to school nor had friends. Ooops."

Seto shot him a warning look but said nothing. Nevertheless, he did open the file and perused the first few pages and seemed rather impressed by the proposal. "Why did you choose a partner to set up a school using a Bingo machine?"

Pegasus smirked back at him. "Oh Kaiba boy, that was all an excuse to hold a party. And to see you squirm in your singlehood. I've singled out this proposal for you from the start." When he caught sight of Seto glowering at him, he demurred, "Oh come on, don't look so angry. You looked like you enjoyed your time there dancing away with Miss Kaufmann."

The mention of Tullia's family name caught Seto's attention, and he pointedly said to the older man across him, "If you have any revenge vendetta against me, Pegasus, I suggest you put a halt to it."

"Revenge vendetta?" Surprisingly, Pegasus seemed genuinely shocked at the accusation. "What do you mean?"

Seto eyed him carefully. "Don't you?"

The Industrious Illusions CEO made no attempt to hide his disgust at the accusation, and he sounded thoroughly miffed as he replied angrily, "Here I am trying to engage you to build a school and I get thrown such horrible, horrible accusations! I see that I might have decided to call on you on a wrong day. Well, good day, Kaiba boy. I will be waiting to hear if you would take on the project or I can sell it off to another more worthy person."

Seto said nothing as Pegasus huffily made his way out of his office. He flipped open the proposal again. Half a billion dollars from Industrious Illusions to establish a duel academy, with another half a million inclusive of technology from KaibaCorp. The caveat was that KaibaCorp could buy over the academy for an additional million dollars. Seto frowned. Why was Pegasus being so generous?

But it sounds like a legitimate offer, he reasoned out with himself mentally. And a duel academy… His eyes fell on the new Duel Disk prototype resting on his desk. He had never considered of setting up a school to cultivate an entire breed of professional duelists, but now that he thought about it – plus the prospects of profits – it seemed like a plausible venture. And more helpfully, Industrious Illusions seemed to be the main financier.

He was about to pick up his phone to tell Misa to get back to Pegasus with an affirmative reply, but his accidental investigation partner beat him to it. Sighing, Seto set the phone down and activated the video conferencing function on his laptop to answer L's call.

"I take it you've found something helpful about who's trying to get back at me," Seto greeted him.

L was in no mood for humour that day. Or he was concealing his bemusement. It was hard for Seto to tell because once again L's face was hidden behind an Ultraman mask. For a split second Seto wondered if L possessed some horrible disfigurement he wished to hide from the world, or if L just had some affinity for the Phantom of the Opera, but he kept these thoughts to himself and waited out impatiently for L's reply.

The detective's reply, however, wasn't very pleasant to Seto's ears. "I might, if you could confirm something with me about your personal life."

"Go dig it up yourself," Seto snorted irritably.

"I've already done so." L paused for a while as he gingerly picked up a piece of form from the rummage he surrounded himself with. Seto blanched momentarily upon recognition of the form, but outwardly remained unfazed. "This is a marriage registration form, Mr Kaiba. Signed and legalised at the end of last year."

"So?"

"Well, it has your name and Miss Kaufmann's on it," L answered simply. He dangled up another folder in his other hand. His movement caused some of the pages to flutter and Seto caught sight of a familiar document amongst it. "This is your marriage contract, signed by the both of you. 'Separate residence.' 'Maintenance of secrecy.' 'In exchange for the conferment of legal benefits to Mr Gilbert Kaufmann.'" L leaned closer to his webcam so his masked face filled up almost the entire screen. "Moreover, Mr Kaiba, according to my sources, you made a verbal declaration that there would be no marital symbols, not even a wedding ring. Would you care to explain to me about your marital situation, Mr Kaiba?"

"If you have memorised the entire contract, then it is as you read it," Seto responded coldly, moving to disconnect the call, but L halted him. Maintaining what was left of his patience for the morning, he listened to what the detective had to say.

"Pegasus isn't the culprit," L declared. He threw Seto's marriage registration form away and picked up a photograph of a woman who resembled Tullia closely. "Would you happen to recognize her, Mr Kaiba?"

Seto grumbled, "She's my sister-in-law, of course I know her. Thalia."

"Were you aware she's the one handling the drugs trade proper?"

"What are you talking about? Isn't Tullia the one handling the Kaufmann's business?"

L put the photograph aside and looked at Seto directly from behind his mask. "I think it's best if you pay a visit to the Kaufmann's residence," he said softly. "I'd think that Thalia would be there. Perhaps you'll find your answer there."

XO XO XO XO

The spiral gates opened to reveal a well-paved lane leading up to an expanse portico held up with marble pillars on either side. The sleek ebony Jaguar eased its way up to the steps of the portico before it stopped. Seto Kaiba stepped out from the driver's seat and quickly glanced about him. He had been to the Kaufmanns' residence before, back when Mr Kaufmann was still alive. It should come as no surprise that the mansion had taken on an entirely new look within that space of time. It looked more like a Roman palace now compared to the Gothic style of the past.

The tall splendid doors opened on either side and he walked through it, passing his coat to the servant on hand. A slim, blonde girl ambled from the living room towards him, beaming and kissing the air on both sides of his cheeks as a greeting. "Seto," she breathed out happily. "What brings you here? Tullia is still at your house, no?"

Seto nodded. He gestured to the Romanesque style of the mansion's interior. "Tullia's doing?"

Thalia Kaufmann sniffed as she pushed her hair away from her face. "Obviously," she remarked. "Her passion – no, obsession, with Ancient Rome can be riveting. It took all I could to get her to let me handle the south end of the house." Her eyes lit up at the mention of the south end of the mansion, and she tugged Seto's hand excitedly. "Come! You need to see the south end! I think you'll find it greatly familiar."

"Familiar?" Seto echoed.

Thalia gave no reply as she dragged Seto up to the corridor leading to the south end of her mansion. Along the way, Seto noticed that academic certificates hanging on the walls, and one particularly caught his eye. "Egyptology," he read out. He turned to Thalia. "You never struck me as the sort that would do a degree in something as obscure as that."

"Some things just can't be explained," she commented airily. She halted at the end of the corridor and gestured at the vast expanse of space which was the south end of the house. To be more accurate, it felt like there were two houses in one estate. While Tulia's was modelled after the Senate House of Ancient Rome, Thalia's was the gleaming gold of Ancient Egypt.

Thalia must have caught the look on Seto's face when his eyes fell upon a towering structure in the middle of the second threshold of the mansion, for she said, "It is familiar, isn't it?"

Seto snapped his head towards her. "How… when did you see this?"

"In my dreams," Thalia replied straightforwardly. "Set was so pleased when the pharaoh erected this structure to revere him." She shrugged. "I kept having these dreams, and went to find out about it. That explains my Egyptology cert." She eyed him carefully. "You do remember, right, Seto? About this spire?"

Seto grimaced. "What makes you think I'll be familiar with it?"

Thalia gave him a wan smile. "Because I've seen you in it. Or rather, I saw our past."

"Our past?" Seto repeated incredulously.

"My pharaoh," Thalia addressed him dreamily. She looked at him seriously as she placed a hand lightly on his arm. "Don't tell me you've forgotten about me, Seth?"

Seto flicked her hand away. "Thalia, what's wrong with you?" he barked. "Come to your senses!"

"No!" Thalia blazed back at him. "Seto, you need to wake up and you need to remember! You chose the wrong woman!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Thalia," Seto responded coolly as he made a move to walk away. "I'm leaving. You can entertain your madness by yourself."

Even as he stormed out of the house back into his car and sped away from the Kaufmann estate, he couldn't help but think back on Thalia's last few words to him. He shook his head defiantly. No, she was just raving mad. He made the correct decision. He was sure of it.

XO XO XO XO

By the time he opened the door to Tullia's room, she was already dressed and packed to head home. She glanced up, sensing his presence at the door and smiled widely at him. Seto elicited a half-smile at her, his eyes trailing down from her face down to the ring on her hand.

Tullia gazed at him curiously. "Seto? What's wrong?"

"It's nothing," he said quietly, moving towards her. "You look healthier."

"Yes, thanks to your doctors." Tullia peered closer at him, anxiety creeping into her voice. "Seto, something's wrong. What is it? Tell me."

Without warning, Tullia found her face pressed against his chest as Seto uncharacteristically circled his arms around her. "Se-Seto?"

"Is it fine with you if you don't go home tonight?"


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: yes i deserved to be whacked it took me 2 years to get this to continue! for my followers, here's a new chapter. i promise i will get a few more new chapters up by the end of August. i have recently rekindled my crush on Seto Kaiba and Ancient Egypt so i'm excited to keep this story going. (i confess as a history student i am usually picky about historical accuracy but i am going to take liberties for this one, sorry!)**

**for new readers, welcome!**

**for everyone, i hope you guys enjoy it! do drop me your reviews if you have any! -hugs and love-**

* * *

><p><em>"Your Highness?"<em>

_He didn't respond immediately; instead, he took his time to dismiss his general, nodded in acceptance of the latter's bow of respect, before he turned around to look at his vizier._

_"Is there an urgent matter?" he inquired._

_His vizier – a man in his fifties who had come into the position as recently as he had come into kingship – hesitated. His vizier kept his face down, as if in fear that what he intended to say might offend his pharaoh._

_The pharaoh, meanwhile, had no patience to entertain his vizier's uncertainty. In truth, he had technically reduced his vizier's position to a formality; the pharaoh himself had insisted on taking personal charge of key affairs in the kingdom. But he kept the vizier by his side, still, to deal with the tax collectors whose characters he was scarcely fond of. Seeing that his vizier was still reluctant to air what was in his mind, he demanded, "Speak up!"_

_He heard his vizier draw in a huge breath before the middle-aged man dared to lift his face to meet the pharaoh's eyes. "Your Highness," he started. "As a lowly servant I know that I don't have the right to inquire this of you, but I believe that I need to deliver to you the concerns of your people, my Pharaoh…"_

_"Get straight to the point," his pharaoh interjected brusquely._

_"Your Highness, the people are worried about your lack of an heir," as soon as the vizier said those words, he bent his head so low it was almost touching the ground._

_"I will decide on an heir when it's the right time, Vizier," the Pharaoh commented dryly. "Assure the people that there is nothing that they need to be concerned about. As long as I still breathe, their lives are safe in my hands."_

_"But Your Highness…"_

_"But what?"_

_"Your Highness, wouldn't it be better," the vizier replied meekly. "Wouldn't it be better, if you were to take a wife, my Pharaoh? Even if it's just for formalities…"_

_The Pharaoh snorted. "And where am I to find this trophy of a Royal Wife? I don't possess any sisters or half-sisters or cousins." As if to pre-empt the words of his vizier, he insisted, "I will not marry a commoner, Vizier, if that is what you are suggesting. I might have been able to do that in the early days… but not now. Things are different."_

_His vizier bowed deeply in assent of his words, but still continued to speak, "If not a commoner, your Highness, then perhaps you could take a wife from the nobles. There are very few of the families left, your Highness, even less those who are girls of marriageable age. But taking a wife from them could earn you very grateful clients, my Pharaoh."_

_"Do whatever you like," the Pharaoh agreed reluctantly, moving to walk away, only for his vizier to hurriedly keep up with him. "But it will purely be for formalities. She will not be entitled to anything more than the title of a Royal Wife. Just the title, nothing else. She will live in a separate residence and she will not be allowed to step foot in the main residence. She will only be allowed to make an appearance with me during special events; at other times, I don't wish to see her or hear from her. And as for breeding an heir, which is the gravest concern you and my people are nursing, I will tell you now, Vizier, that it won't be from her. If you can find a girl from nobility willing to live like that, then I will marry her…"_

Seto's eyes flew open at the sharp ringing of his phone. Hastily, he pressed a button and his secretary's voice floated through the phone's loudspeaker, announcing to him that a guest insisted to meet him: Maximillian Pegasus. Seto groaned inwardly but gruffly permitted his sometimes-nemesis to enter.

Pegasus floated into his room with a wan smile and a flick of his hair, and not without his typical "Hello Kaiba-boy" greeting that always secretly raised goosebumps on the nape of Seto's neck. Seto Kaiba, as usual, responded to his guest's warm greeting with a blunt "What do you want?"

Pegasus tutted as he seated himself across Seto. "You never seem to learn your manners, Kaiba-boy," he remarked. "You're no longer an angsty teenager, you know. You're a young man of twenty-two. It's a shame I can't add the adjective 'fine' to your description because your manners are really wanting."

"My manners didn't keep me off the tabloids as the most eligible bachelor," Seto retorted sincerely. "Which is more than I can say for you. If you haven't been shamelessly calling up on people like you're doing now, people would have thought you'd mysteriously died in some ancient crypt or something."

Pegasus was rightly offended at the Kaibacorp CEO's remarks, but chose to merely sniff and proceed with his main intention of paying the visit: to inquire after the project he had offered to Seto. The young man snorted at his question as if it was the stupidest thing he had heard in a long while and affirmed his commitment towards the project. Pegasus barely hid his glee upon hearing the positive reply.

"Oh, Kaiba-boy, I should've known you would've said yes!" he gushed.

"What's the catch?" Seto burst his bubble of bliss.

"What catch?"

"You're offering me this project at a dirt-cheap price. What's the catch?"

Pegasus broke into a trilling laughter. "Oh, Kaiba-boy, there's no catch! I just needed someone reliable that can continue to contribute to the world of Duel Monsters after me, and can there be anyone else but you?"

Seto frowned. "Is something wrong with you, Pegasus?"

"What? With me?" Pegasus's eyes widened. "Oh, don't be silly, Kaiba-boy! I just thought that by letting you build a school you can have some friends."

"I don't need friends," Seto answered curtly.

"Well, then that's too bad, Kaiba-boy. I foresee you'll be spending your future without laughter and without good fun." Pegasus got up to leave, waving a goodbye at the young CEO. "I'll be looking forward to your school, Kaiba-boy! Don't disappoint me."

Seto waited until Pegasus closed the door behind him, and then he let his head drop onto his desk with a thud. He had scarcely had time to register how annoying the headache plaguing his head was before he had to pretend to ignore it and entertain Pegasus. Now that he was alone again, he didn't have to put up any pretence.

In the midst of his headache, his mind wandered back to his dream. His lookalike of an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh had been talking of taking a Royal Wife; probably just a complicated way of saying marriage. What Seto found disturbing was the terms the pharaoh had set out for his Royal Wife; they sounded frighteningly similar to his prenuptial contract with Tullia, except that he probably wasn't as cold.

Probably.

Ignoring the headache once again, he flipped his laptop open. Once it recovered from stand-by, a word document materialized on his screen. He read the heading once again: official petition for divorce between Seto Kaiba and Tullia Kaufmann. It was almost done; he had requested Tullia to stay behind last night to cobble this piece together. If there was such a thing as an amicable split, this was it. They had gone through their prenuptial contract over again, looking for explicit laws which they had broken and could thus grant credence to their claims for divorce. They had separate residence checked off the list; he had also thought of his verbal agreement of having no marriage symbols as a possible renegement of contract when he presented Tullia the ring earlier. By default, it was simply an overdue birthday gift. But it was good excuse enough for breaking the prenuptial contract. He had expected Tullia to express her reservations about his decision; surprisingly, she was in complete agreement about it.

"If it will deflect danger away from me, then so be it," she had said calmly. "Send the papers over to my lawyer by tomorrow evening. I should be able to pull some strings to have it passed by the court within a week."

Scarcely past my mid-twenties and I'm going to be a widower, he grimaced as he clicked the print button. This can't get out into the news. He didn't like it much but Misa was right: him playing up his bachelor status helped KaibaCorp's and his image a lot.

Sighing, he pulled out a file from his briefcase. L hadn't made any indecent intrusion for the past twenty hours. There was nothing that he could work from for now. Thalia was probably just a little obsessed with her Egyptology nonsense; but she had hinted at something about him being her pharaoh. Seto shivered. What if she believed herself to be the reincarnation of his ancient Egyptian pharaoh doppelganger's so-called Royal Wife? Ziegfried would flip.

But so far, the murderer called Ra – it seemed that his (Seto was adamant it wasn't Thalia, no matter how terrifying she was when he last paid her a visit) motive was connected to a larger picture. Perhaps personal in relation to Seto, but the undertaking alluded to something of a more cosmic level. He picked up his phone and hesitated momentarily, thought better of his consternation and punched the number in anyway.

"Line 3, please," he requested.

"Good afternoon Mr Kaiba," the familiar voice floated through the receiver after a few long seconds of waiting. "How are the investigations going?"

"I should be asking you that," Seto retorted. "I paid a visit to Thalia. She's…"

"Terrifying?" L suggested.

"Disturbing," Seto amended the adjective. "She did her studies in Egyptology. I'm surprised. I thought she did Psychology."

"A dangerous combination, don't you think?" L interrupted. "Would you please tell me the whole story, Mr Kaiba? I assure you I am well-acquainted with her biography. Did she make any interesting remark concerning you?"

"It's not her, L," Seto insisted.

L ignored him and repeated his inquiry. Seto sighed and reluctantly said, "She mentioned something about a dream she had. There was some spire, I was some pharaoh and she was there… it all sounded like delusional drivel."

"Was the spire she mentioned something like this?"

Seto's eyes flicked over to his laptop screen. Once again L had broken into his computer system and had uploaded a file image that took up half of his screen. Sure enough, it was the tall stone spire with the sacred hieroglyphs inscribed down and along each surface except for the top – and which had appeared both in his dreams and had a replica appearance in the Kaufmann mansion. He opted to keep the former information secret, but remarked about the latter to the detective.

"Did she believe herself to be the Royal Wife Thoeris?"

"Tho-what?" Seto echoed incredulously. "How should I know about these Ancient Egyptian nonsense. You're the know-it-all detective, you tell me."

For the first time since they communicated with each other, Seto could hear L sigh in resignation on the other side, and he inwardly snickered, reveling in how difficult he was making it for the detective. He heard the ruffling of pages before L's voice came on again wearily, "Mr Kaiba, would you like me to explain things to you or would you prefer to read it on your own?"

"Spare me the readings," Seto snorted. "Can't you just condense it for me?"

"As usual, then, Mr Kaiba," L agreed. "Records aren't clear in which dynasty this occurs, but it might have been in the Middle Kingdom. The Royal Wife Thoeris was the consort to the Pharaoh Set who came to power after the Pharaoh Atem disappeared mysteriously. It's stated in some records that Set heralded his coronation with the reunification of the Upper and Lower Lands, and with it the erection of a large temple dedicated to Horus and Set…"

_We shall be protected under the balanced powers of Horus and Set. Erect a temple in their honour on these grounds._

"Go on," Seto nudged even as remnants of past dreams entered his memory fleetingly. "What of the Royal Wife?"

"Thoeris was the sole daughter of an old noble family. It didn't seem that the Pharaoh had much interaction with her. It's even stated that they dwelled in different residences, and only made a public appearance once a year during the celebration of the New Year."

_She will not be entitled to anything more than the title of a Royal Wife. Just the title, nothing else. She will live in a separate residence and she will not be allowed to step foot in the main residence. She will only be allowed to make an appearance with me during special events; at other times, I don't wish to see her or hear from her._

"She was just a trophy wife," Seto concluded dismissively. "I don't suppose they had any heir."

"Not as far as these records tell us, or the scribes might have been requested to write differently," L concurred. "For someone who claims to not be interested in Ancient Egyptian history, Mr Kaiba, you seem surprisingly calm and almost in knowledge of it." L paused momentarily. "Is there anything you are concealing from me, Mr Kaiba?"

"If you know so much about me, why don't you tell me?" Seto challenged.

"Mr Kaiba, do you believe in reincarnation?"

"Don't be ridiculous," his acquaintance scoffed. "You're a man of logic. I expected better from you."

"I am a man of logic, but I'm not a man who dismisses every possibility," L retaliated carefully. "You had no prior education in hieroglyphs, Mr Kaiba, yet you are able to read them almost intuitively. Thalia Kaufmann had to spend five years learning them."

"I'm just gifted that way," Seto said coolly. "If you have no leads on this case, then I don't suppose there's any need to prolong this conversation. I only called you up to see if you have any new suspects to consider."

Seto could almost hear L smile on the other end. "If indeed the reign of the pharaohs had any part to play in your past life, Mr Kaiba, then I'm afraid there's only so much I can help you with. This Ra murderer seems to be working in a way only you can understand."

Before Seto had a chance to interject, L had switched off the communication channel on his side. Great, just great, he thought as he pressed a button on his desk phone.

"Yes, Mr Kaiba?"

"Misa, ring up the HR department and drag in Tea Gardner," he ordered. "If she could bring in Yugi Mutou along within the hour it'll be great."


	10. Chapter 10

Their communication had been cut off for about an hour, but L continued to stare at the computer screen. He twirled the spoon in his fifth cup of hot cocoa absent-mindedly. There was something inexplicable about the Domino case. As much as it was absolutely necessary to pin down the perpetrator, it was the psychology of the perpetrator that put L in a quandary. By understanding how the murderer's mind works, it might be easier to put together a strategy. But the only lead they could work with since the first case was a smattering of Ancient Egyptian-inspired murders, and disparate hieroglyphs. And Ra.

He leapt off his chair and shuffled over to a tall bookcase. He pondered over it for a long while, his slouch inhibiting slightly his eyes' movement in scanning every title written on the spine of the books lining the bookcase. He never had to deal with Ancient Egyptian matters – thus it was unsurprising that his bookcase housed insufficient books dealing with it. The only book he had recourse to was an encyclopedia on Ancient Egypt, but quite naturally he found it too simple-natured to be utilised in reference to the case at hand.

"L?" a gentle, familiar voice broke his stupor.

The eccentric detective turned around. Wataru stood behind him, holding out a parcel. At L's inquiring look, the old man with the kindly face said, "It's the book you requested for."

L nodded and plucked the book out of Wataru's hands. The old man smiled at him gently as he took his leave. L peeled the wrapper off the book in a manner that one could say was almost clumsily, leaving the scraps of paper scattered on the floor. By the time he crouched back on his chair, all the wrapper was gone. He found himself staring at the words on the hardcover: Osiris's Court.

Thanks to the encyclopedia, he managed to glean decent amount of basic knowledge on the complexity of Ancient Egyptian mythology. Ra was the Sun God, regarded as the main deity in the pantheon. Osiris was the God of the Dead. Comparing Set's role in the myths relating to each deity, Set was an enigma. Much feared by some, much revered by others.

_Just like Seto Kaiba_, L thought drily.

His thoughts floated back to Ra. Was the murderer being ironic on purpose? Or did he really believe himself to be the bearer of the day? Ra and Set didn't destroy each other; rather, Set aided Ra (even if he did it reluctantly) in destroying the serpent Apophis as the latter made his daily journey through the Underworld. L frowned. Was the murderer Ra really being antagonistic to Seto Kaiba at all? Or was he trying to lure Seto Kaiba into aiding him towards his goal?

He peered once again at the computer screen. No, he decided. It would be too early a conclusion to warn Seto Kaiba about it. And it didn't make sense. If Ra was trying to lure Seto Kaiba into aiding him, in accordance to Ra's daily voyage through the Underworld, why weren't his murders committed according to the challenges that Ra faced in each hour between dusk and dawn? But the murders were committed by randomly selecting scenes from Ancient Egyptian mythology and history.

"Red herrings?" L wondered out loud. "But so many…"

He thought back to the Seto Kaiba's insistence on Thalia Kaufmann's innocence. Seto Kaiba seemed so certain of it. Could diverting the blame to Thalia have been part of Ra's plan too?

_I hope my last resort is right_, L grimaced as he hefted his newly acquired book onto his desk with one hand while reaching out for a giant lollipop with the other. _If indeed this has to do with Seto Kaiba's distant past, I hope he figures out what is happening soon._

XO XO XO XO

Tea squirmed uncomfortably as she raised a hand to knock on the large mahogany door. She had received the instructions a while ago, and had catapulted her way to the game shop to look for Yugi. Thankfully, Yugi was there at the store, doing the stock-checking on behalf of his grandfather who had been unwell again recently. He was equally surprised at the news Tea brought, but tarried along with her back to KaibaCorp HQ.

Misa, Kaiba's secretary had waved them in, looking half-annoyed at the mere mention of her employer. Tea deigned to inquire further; she knew from her previous encounters with the both of them that the employer and secretary enjoyed a strangely terse but affectionate professional relationship. They got on each other's nerves just fine, and fell back into the normal rhythm of work almost instantaneously. Maybe that was why Misa, apart from Roland, was the only employee Seto Kaiba could ever endure to have constantly by his side.

"Come in," came the familiar, stern voice from within the room.

Tea pushed the door open and snuck her head in to bow. "Mr Kaiba, you called for me and Mr Mutou?"

Her boss, who had been on his feet looking out of the tall windows framing his office, looked over his shoulder and frowned at her words. "Don't have to be so formal with me, Gardner. It's not on an official matter that I've called you both here." He nodded an appraisal towards the young man by Tea's side. "Yugi."

"Kaiba," Yugi greeted back.

"Have a seat," he invited them uncharacteristically with a sigh as he himself took his seat.

Tea and Yugi exchanged looks, but acceded to his request anyway. Noticing how tired Seto looked, Tea thought it wise to venture to ask, "Kaiba, are you okay? You look really exhausted."

Seto ignored her question. "I called the both of you here because there's something I need you to do." He lifted a crystal paperweight to reveal a pad, which he pressed. A screen slid down behind him, covering the tall windows that they had previously seen. Tea and Yugi made the effort to hide how impressed they were. Instead, their eyes followed him as he got up and approached the screen, beckoning them over.

The screen was plastered with sheets of paper and photographs. As Tea drew nearer, one of the images caught her attention and she barely had time to stop herself from retching. Her employer looked at her disdainfully as he said, "Don't go about vomiting all over my office, Gardner. Get back to your seat; I'll be sure to speak loud enough to fill you in."

Tea nodded as she clambered back to her seat, leaving Yugi and Seto standing before the giant screen. Seto watched curiously as Yugi neared the photograph of one of the hieroglyphs, and traced his fingers over the symbols. "Could you understand it?" Seto asked.

"I can understand a few symbols – Grandpa taught me – but not much," Yugi confessed. "Why do you have all of these hieroglyphs with you? And the images?" His eyes squinted as he studied a few more of the documents on the screen. "Hey, these are the recent murder cases."

"I'm investigating on behalf of an… acquaintance," Seto explained flatly. He gestured to the hieroglyphs one by one. "I've transcribed them and my acquaintance believes this… Ra's main target is me."

"Do you have any possible suspects?" Tea interjected out of the blue from behind them, causing Yugi to jump slightly.

"Apparently your nausea disappeared upon the mention of investigations," Seto allowed himself to level some sarcasm against her before regarding her question seriously. "I did, but none of them checked out." He pointed towards a flowchart with names indicating connections to one another.

Tea and Yugi saw familiar names, and some unfamiliar ones. Tea turned to Seto and asked, "Thalia Kaufmann. Is she the one who's engaged to Ziegfreid?"

"Yes," Seto hesitated to elaborate for a while. "She became our prime suspect for a while, but I can't find much to implicate her."

"This murderer who called himself Ra, he or she seems to have decent knowledge of Egyptology," Yugi mused. "But the way the murders were conducted, and the hieroglyphic messages - they're all scattered, almost randomly chosen."

"Except that the end point is me," Seto sounded almost distressed by that fact, but reasonably so. "My acquaintance made a strange mention about…" Tea and Yugi could almost see how tortured Seto Kaiba was in uttering the following words, "The reign of pharaohs in my past life."

The only response that greeted him was a deafening silence. Tea and Yugi stared at him in shock. Were their ears hearing correctly?

Tea quickly sought to dispel the uncomfortable atmosphere. "Okay, let's assume that the premise of a past life is valid. How, uhh… well, how was your past life like?"

"I don't know," Seto answered simply.

"Not even any strange memories or anything?" Tea tried again.

"Define strange memories."

Tea turned to Yugi exasperatedly for help; he caught on and added quietly, "Did you have another of those ancient visions, Kaiba?"

Seto remained silent, reluctantly turning the dreams over in his mind. "Fine," he finally relented. "I did. What about it?"

"What did you see?"

Seto shrugged. "It's all a bit haphazard." At Yugi's insistent, pointed look, he admitted, "Scenes during my past life's rule as Pharaoh. There's not much. I just built some spire, and agreed to take on a trophy wife called Thoeris."

At the mention of a trophy wife, Tea hurriedly covered up her snicker with a cough, but it still earned an icy glare from him. Yugi bit his lip to hide his amusement and continued to address Seto as seriously as possible, "What of this Thoeris? Do you think she has some reincarnation now?"

"Thalia Kaufmann is claiming she is," Seto replied, almost in disgust. "But I think she's just delusional."

"Yet another of those women who are strangely obsessed with you?" Tea fired snidely. "Isn't she Ziegfreid's fiancée?"

"Out of an _omiai_," Seto responded, stopping himself from rolling his eyes at the mere prospect of it. "But Ziegfreid doesn't know."

"I won't fancy his reaction if he knows," Tea said darkly.

"There'll be a lack of drama even if he were to find out, Gardner. I told you their engagement was a result of an _omiai_. Ziegfreid would only be disappointed if his fiancée is my -" He caught himself just in time to amend it, "-friend, Tullia."

"So how are you going to go about dealing with this?" Yugi steered the conversation back to the topic at hand. "It doesn't seem like there's much room to manoeuvre."

"That's why I called the both of you here," Seto remarked, leaning against the screen with his arms folded. His gaze ticked towards Tea. "Gardner, I need you to pretend to be my woman."

"What?!"

"Didn't you hear me? Pretend. You're in PR, I'm assigning that task to you."

"But how? And why?" Tea glared at him indignantly. Who was he to make such decisions?

"Because you did half the job for me by agreeing to escort me to Pegasus's stupid party. You're such an insignificant part of KaibaCorp nobody outside the company knows you're an employee here. And you look different when you're wearing rented expensive clothes. You don't have to fear about being recognized. So find a cover story. Leak it. Stage something. Call the paparazzis. Is that enough elaboration of the job detail for you?"

Tea continued to stare at him in disbelief. "You're insane!"

"I'd rather have a trophy wife than you as my woman proper, Gardner," Seto assured her sincerely. "I need you to do that because I need to make sure of something."

"What thing?"

"None of your business," he quickly shut her off. "But it is part of the investigation." Seeing that Tea was still heavily reluctant to give her assent, he offered, "As compensation for infringing on your personal space, I'll clear your college debts for you if you can execute this task well." Without waiting for her reply, Seto turned to Yugi, "Fill me in on what I need to know about my past life."

Yugi looked at him strangely. "Kaiba, I can't do that."

"Why not? You had the spirit of a dead pharaoh live inside your Millennium Puzzle for four years."

"Well, yes, but we've put him to rest… remember?"

Seto sighed as he recalled their last escapade in a tomb in Egypt. "Fine. Your grandfather knew a lot about Ancient Egypt. Can he tell me anything about the rule of… well, my rule?" From the corner of his eyes he caught Tea rolling her eyes at the mention of the last two words, but he let it slide.

"My grandpa isn't feeling that well nowadays, Kaiba… but I'll try," Yugi promised.

"Good." For the first time during the meeting, Seto Kaiba looked genuinely relieved. "When I'm done with my latest project, Yugi, I want you to be there to see it."

"Sure, Kaiba," Yugi replied smilingly. He wasn't too sure what project Seto Kaiba had in store, but he knew that was just Seto's way of saying thanks.

"The door is that way," Seto said as a way of seeing them off, but without looking at them. "Ask Misa for the executive lift. It'll take you straight down to the carpark. I'll ask one of my men to drop you off."

He waited until the both of them had completely left the room before he picked up his phone again, "Ziegfreid? Can you come down to my office?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: an _omiai_ can be loosely interpreted as an arranged marriage.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: another new chapter up! I have some ideas running through my head now, and I can't wait to put them in words.**

**for now, i hope you guys enjoy this fic/chapter so far! Send in your reviews/PMs/comments, they are always more than welcome (:**

**love, fika1603**

* * *

><p><em>Gardner, I need you to pretend to be my woman.<em>

"What sort of assignment is that!" Tea fumed even as she typed away furiously at her desk computer to come up with a story to 'leak' to the media. The Internet helped her briefly with looking for photos taken of her and Seto during Pegasus's party. But apart from that, she had to work from scratch and worse: she had to come up with an entire new identity for herself. And she didn't buy what her boss said about her looking different in expensive clothes; what if people were to peer closely and realize that it's actually her?

She re-read the story she had typed out once it came out of the printer. It sounded entirely bogus to her, but maybe bogus was good. The tabloids just needed something to feed on, after all. Now she needed to stage a photo opportunity to go along with the story before she could properly leak it. That would require threats to her boss to agree to them.

Sighing, she picked up the piece of paper containing the story and made her way to the elevator to go up to the 27th floor. She barely got out of the elevator shaft when she was halted by two of Seto Kaiba's bodyguards.

"I'm sorry, but Mr Kaiba has explicitly made it known he wishes to have no visitors for the rest of the day," one of them told her rather kindly.

Tea tried to peer behind them – even Misa was not at her seat. "No visitors for the rest of the day," the bodyguard repeated more firmly this time round.

"But I have something urgent that Mr Kaiba has personally requested me to complete," Tea tried to argue. "I'll need his finalized approval before the PR department can send it out."

The other bodyguard chortled. "The PR department? I don't think it's a department that Mr Kaiba greatly prioritizes in the company's organization hierarchy."

The nicer bodyguard interrupted almost apologetically, "Mr Kaiba really insisted on having no visitors, miss. Perhaps you can come back later?" He lowered his voice a notch, "But he's sitting inside with Mr von Schroeder. I'm not too sure if he'll be in a good mood to receive employees after that."

Tea's ears pricked at the mention of the German industrialist. Ziegfreid von Schroeder? Her eyes ticked towards the door leading to Seto's office. Could they possibly be discussing about the murders? And the Kaufmann sisters?

_But there's no way for me to get in there,_ she thought exasperatedly._ Moreover, the bodyguards are adamant not to budge._

"I'll just… try again later," she acquiesced, backing away into the elevator and wasting no time to press the button to shut the doors. Her fingers hovered over the buttons of the lower floors of the building where her department was located, but eventually poked the button leading to the ground floor. If Ziegfreid's presence in Seto's room meant that she wasn't able to get inside to sate her curiosity, then she would just have to wait for Zeigfreid to tell her about it.

XO XO XO XO

Ziegfreid stared at his counterpart wearily. "Herr Kaiba, are you out of your mind?"

"Do you think I enjoy telling you about this?" Seto shot back, setting his glass of water on his desk.

"You're telling me to break off the engagement with my fiancée," Zeigfreid shrilled. "And you're telling me that you and Tullia are married –"

"Were," Seto corrected him.

"Fine, were. And you're telling me to marry her. Is there something wrong with your head, Herr Kaiba? Has all those astounding levels of intelligence gotten to you? What am I going to do about Thalia? She will have my intestines and turn them into sausages!"

"I'm giving you a chance to marry the person you like, shouldn't you be prostrating before me in absolute gratitude?" Seeing that Ziegfreid still harboured reservations about his idea, Seto pushed a glass of water towards him as he sought to persuade his much-disliked German acquaintance. "You'll be doing Tullia a favour. And you'll be doing yourself a favour too: I can finally get out of your hair."

"This is not the time for hair jokes, Herr Kaiba!" Zeigfreid protested.

"I don't particularly have time for jokes, Zeigfreid. Marry Tullia and go somewhere that's not Domino or Germany. I will deal with Thalia."

Zeigfreid remained silent as he mulled over the proposition. Seto rolled his eyes and re-focused his attention to his laptop. There were things to be done instead of watching Zeigfreid closely to determine what his decision would be; he already knew what the fancy-haired German's response would be. No need to add unnecessary pressure on Ziegfreid and wasting more time on the likes of him.

An email had popped into his inbox during his conversation with Ziegfreid. A quick glance at the sender indicated that it was the investigation partner who had foisted himself on him. Ziegfreid needed to get out of his office now.

"Have you made up your mind?" Seto asked impatiently.

The German businessman sighed deeply. "I guess I'll have to agree. But it's a little strange that you would be so willing to give Tullia away. I thought you would've been a bit more possessive."

"She's just a wife I got out of an agreement with her father. It's not much different between you and Thalia."

"But I can tell she loves you, Herr Kaiba," Zeigfreid pressed on.

Seto looked at him straight in the eye. "I don't," he said simply. "If I did, do you think I would've let her go to somebody like you?"

Ziegfreid eyed him suspiciously, but eventually got up with a huff, "Very well, Herr Kaiba. I will bring Tullia out of Domino as quick as I can."

His voice trailed off, and Seto read his concern. He reaffirmed in an assuring tone, "Leave Thalia to me, Ziegfreid. I promise you she'll be fine."

Seto didn't wait for Ziegfreid to fully exit from his office before he clicked open the new email from L. It was brief, but telling:

_The Domino City Police Department received a parcel last night, and forwarded it to us. It was addressed to you, but for your safety we've opened it. You're welcome. I've scanned the contents and included them in this email. If indeed this is the endpoint of Ra's game, and you're the target, we don't have much time._

_I will call you fifteen minutes after your receipt of this email. L._

Seto reread the email. So Ra finally ended the roundabout and came to him directly? But why send the parcel to the police instead of directly to him? Doing his best to stave off the fear creeping into his spine, he loaded the attachment to the email that L had promised. Either the DCPD or L's colleagues had taken the pains to photograph almost every observable detail of the parcel including the wrapping.

The parcel was housed in linen wrapping, and the photographs demonstrated that those linen had to be wound off a box. A close-up shot revealed the box to be a wooden sarcophagus, complete with a silver and blue-painted inner coffin. Seto's eyes caught hieroglyphic scribbles on the wooden sarcophagus, and read them to be his name. He would never openly admit it to anyone, but seeing a coffin – even a miniature one- prepared especially for him did make him queasy, and a little afraid. He half-expected a miniature figurine of him lay mummified in the coffin, but it turned out to house nothing but a roll of papyrus and something that looked like the Millennium Eye.

_Not those Millennium items again_, he scowled as he clicked open the image that contained the details in the papyrus. His scowl deepened into a frown when he saw what was written in the papyrus:

_It is time for us to meet, Your Majesty._  
><em>Or do you think that you're too great a king<em>  
><em>to meet the One who created the fire of life?<em>  
><em>Not even the God of Chaos can repel me;<em>  
><em>you have to face me yourself.<em>

_Your sins are known by the mighty gods,_  
><em>but escape them if you can in the Court<em>  
><em>where Osiris seats as counsel<em>  
><em>and Maat awaits you as the judge.<em>  
><em>Will you live to take the boat towards me<em>  
><em>Or will the benevolent Ammut devour your heart?<em>

_Take heed, O Pharaoh_  
><em>lest your arrogance blinds you to my words.<em>  
><em>Everything in this is world is two.<em>  
><em>You are one, but then there's another of you<em>  
><em>That I will keep with me<em>  
><em>Until you obey my words<em>  
><em>and meet your fate.<em>

_Another of me?_ His mind hurried to comprehend what Ra meant. _Who is he referring to?_

He scarcely had time to mull over it further when his phone rang. He picked it up immediately, "L?"

"Mr Kaiba!"

"Roland?"

"Mr Kaiba, it's Mr Mokuba!"

Seto's grip on the receiver tightened. "What's wrong with Mokuba, Roland? Tell me!"

"Mr Mokuba is missing!"

"What do you mean missing? Did you check the school grounds? Did you ask his schoolmates?"

Roland sounded hysterical and terrified at the same time. "He disappeared halfway during school hours! But all his belongings are still here!"

"Did you find anything else?" Seto pressed on, desperately trying to hide his panic.

"I-I think so. I found a piece of paper on his desk, but I can't read it except for two letters."

"What did it say?"

"T.K."

Seto swore. "Get back here immediately," he ordered. "I mean it, Roland. Immediately. Call up a few more men to come along with you."

"But-but where are we going, Mr Kaiba?"

"You'll know."

XO XO XO XO

Tea paced impatiently near the elevator lobby, whirling around towards the lifts every time the doors opened and getting slightly disappointed everytime it turned out to not be Zeigfreid. What was taking him so long? She wondered as she checked her watch again. She only had so much time to spare before her department head would start looking for her.

Finally a familiar showy figure exited from one of the lifts, and Tea almost leapt in front of him, "Mr von Schroeder!"

The latter let loose a string of German words by way of expressing his surprise. When he calmed down and registered who she was, he chided her, "Miss Gardner, you frightened me! Is there something I can help you with?"

"Were you discussing about the Kaufmann sisters with Mr Kaiba?" Tea blurted her question out before she could stop herself.

"How did you – well, I'm sorry Miss Gardner, but I believe that's confidential between me and Herr Kaiba," Ziegfreid tried to evade answering her.

Tea was having none of it. "Mr von Schroeder, please," she pleaded. "Mr Kaiba has assigned me a ridiculous task, and I believe it has to do with the Kaufmanns. I just need to know that what I will be doing isn't going to do any damage to their image."

That last part was a fib, but it seemed to work on Ziegfreid: the mere mention of potential damage to the Kaufmann sisters was enough to make his eyes widen indignantly and caused him to reappraise his assumption of confidentiality towards the matter that he had previously discussed with her employer.

"Well, I suppose you knew before this that I was engaged to Thalia Kaufmann," he began, pausing once in a while as if he was unsure that he ought to be telling his nemesis's employee the basic gist of the matter. "I just came by to inform Herr Kaiba that I would be breaking off my engagement with her, and marry Tullia instead."

Tea narrowed her eyes in confusion. "But what has that to do with Mr Kaiba? I'm sorry, Mr von Schroeder, but neither you nor my boss seem to be on particularly chummy terms…"

"You were there when Tullia was attacked!" Ziegfreid was quick to jump to defend his story (albeit Tea could detect a tinge of panic creeping into his voice and demeanour). "And you saw how close Herr Kaiba was with her. I thought it would only be proper and gentlemanly of me to make sure that my decision to take Tullia as my wife instead of Thalia wouldn't, shall I say, be stepping on the toes of particularly vengeful people. You must understand, Miss Gardner, I don't fancy having Herr Kaiba driving my company bankrupt just because I didn't clear with him on Tullia's status."

"But what made you change your mind?" Tea asked innocently, although she could guess at the answer by now. Like Ziegfreid said, she was there at Pegasus's party; she noticed how overly concerned he was over Tullia's safety, and how angry he was when Tullia got hurt. To surmise that Seto Kaiba was his love rival might not be too far-fetched a thought.

Surprisingly, Ziegfreid didn't deign to avoid the rather probing question. Rather, he answered her rather bashfully, "Well, Miss Gardner, you must understand how these sort of things are like. Sometimes things happen and our original intentions end up in disarray…"

Tea nodded knowingly with a smile as if to assure him that she understood where he was coming from. Having revealed that small portion of his private life, Ziegfreid gave her a bow and asked that he be able to take his leave. Tea nodded and afforded him a goodbye wave. As she watched him exit the KaibaCorp building, she couldn't help thinking that her boss with an ego the size of his KaibaCorp blimp would do well to learn some warmth and manners from his nemesis.

She suddenly remembered the bogus article she had in her hand since earlier. _Time to try his office once again_, she sighed inwardly, pressing the button to the 27th floor for the third time in the day. _What are the odds it'll be an easy encounter?_

She never had the chance to find out, because as soon as the lift doors open, glowering down at her was her boss. Tea quailed a little inside, but still braved herself to say, "Mr Kaiba, about your PR request-"

"Scrap it," he told her, shoving her aside. "There's no more need for it."

"Wai- where are you going?" she asked irritably, steeling herself slightly so she wasn't completely tossed out of the elevator.

"None of your business," he remarked coldly.

Tea fumed at him, "It is my business! What is going on?"

This time round he managed to lodge her out of the lift successfully. "I don't have time. I don't care how you do it, tell Yugi to get back to me on the Egypt nonsense ASAP," he managed to issue a final bossy order before the lift doors shut itself in front of Tea's face, missing her nose by mere centimetres.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: New chapter up! Read and review, guys! (:**

**love, fika1603**

* * *

><p>There were loud persistent knocks on the door. Yugi sighed as he traipsed over to answer it. "I'm sorry, guys, but the shop's closed for today," he said almost mechanically without really looking at the person in front of him.<p>

"Yugi!" a familiar voice heaved as a hand snatched out to rest on his shoulder. "Thank goodness you're still here!"

Yugi's eyes widened. "Tea? What are you doing here? Come on in."

She shook her head, throwing her chestnut locks around her face. "No time, Yugi," she said urgently. "Kaiba wants to hear from you now."

"Now?" Yugi echoed incredulously. He peered over her shoulder, as if searching for any black limousines that might have especially been utilised to send Tea his way. There wasn't any, so Tea must have sprinted here at her own expense. "But Tea, I haven't had time to check! I still have stock-checking to do!"

"I know!" she concurred, throwing her hands up in exasperation before breaking into an angry babble. "I spent the entire day writing up some bogus article about me and him to leak to the press, but when I went to see him, guess what? He said there's no need for it! And he almost broke my nose with the elevator doors! I am going to wring his neck and hang him from a flagpole and let the mob crush him to death!"

"I'm quite sure his helicopter will reach in time to save him," Yugi humoured her wryly. He glanced around behind him and groaned. There were still so many boxes left unpacked, not to mention that the contents of the storeroom had been purged out onto the centre of the shop haphazardly. There was no way that he could settle all of it and figure out Seto Kaiba's past life by tomorrow morning.

"Was Kaiba really adamant to hear from me now?" Yugi asked hopefully. He kept his fingers crossed in his pocket.

"We could just ignore him," Tea suggested malevolently.

Yugi heaved a huge sigh as he stepped out of the store to lock the door behind him. "No," he decided as he held out a hand towards Tea. "Let's get this over with – I don't want Kaiba breathing down our necks."

"Where to?" Tea asked as she took his hand, letting him pull her along running down the street.

"The only place to find out things like that – the library!" Yugi announced with a grin. "Come on!"

XO XO XO XO

"Mr Kaiba, I am really really sorry-"

"Save it, Roland," Seto cut him off as he clambered hurriedly into the backseat. He cast a quick glance behind them: there were at least two other black cars. Roland managed to bring more than enough men. "It's not your fault. Now hurry, we're running out of time."

"Where are we going, sir?"

"The Kaufmann's mansion," Seto retorted. He leant forward to slide open the divider between the front seat and the back, and held out an outstretched hand. "The letter."

Roland hastily pressed the letter into his employer's hands before turning his attention back to the road, where their limousine was hitting all the red lights. Seto made a mental note to keep an eye out for traffic summons in the mail. The letter was printed on normal paper, surprisingly. What was unsurprising was the hieroglyphs on it, detailing nothing more than the fact that Mokuba had been abducted, and that if Seto wanted him back, he must return to face his ancient past.

_I am getting really sick of this hieroglyphics nonsense,_ Seto thought acidly as his eyes stared at the symbols icily._ I'm going to put an end to this thing today._ He plunged his hand into the inner pocket of his blazer to feel for his phone. A quick look at the screen indicated that he hadn't missed any message or calls. Seems like L forgot about the call. Seto considered initiating the call instead, but decided against it. This was his fight; Ra just used the police and L to get to him. He would deal with whatever Ra wanted by himself.

He suddenly sensed that the limousine wasn't moving. Slightly alarmed, he rolled the windows down by a small width and peered out. He recognized the tall gates running around the perimeter; they were in front of the Kaufmann's mansion, but why weren't they going in?

"Roland, what are you waiting for?" he groused as he slid open the divider again. His eyes widened when he saw that his right-hand man was slumped over the wheel. "Roland!"

Without wasting another moment to think, he swung open the door to the back seat and stepped out, almost instinctively reaching out for the door to the driver's seat. He gently pushed Roland back up to an upright sitting position, checking the latter's head and chest briefly for any bullet shots. There was no blood, so Roland might have just been knocked out with a strong blow. He straightened himself and cast his eyes behind him. The clearing was empty; where were his other men? It was as if everyone had mysteriously disappeared, leaving him the only person in the clearing, still locked out of the Kaufmanns' residence. He stepped forward to try the wrought-iron gate with his hands. It was pointless, the gate was sealed shut.

"Mr Kaiba?"

Seto whirled around defensively to see who was the source of the voice. A tall, lean man in his forties loomed into view, decked out in the all-black suit characteristic of the Kaufmanns' security entourage. Seto could detect from the corner of his eyes that there were other men either hidden or creeping about behind the bushes lining the clearing.

"Where's my brother?" Seto demanded, shifting his weight slightly in case he needed to rely on some form of self-defence.

"Would you come along with us quietly, Mr Kaiba?" the tall man said again.

"How nice of your lady to send me escorts," Seto replied sarcastically.

The older man afforded the young CEO a brief smile and inclined his head into a bow. "It's the tradition of the Kaufmann house to always honour our guests," he answered sweetly. "If you don't mind putting your hands behind your back, Mr Kaiba, we can get moving."

Seto snorted, but complied as he allowed two other men to pin his arms to the back and dragged him towards their leader. The latter appeared thoroughly amused at Seto's lack of resistance, and he commented on it, "I'm surprised, no struggle?"

"You scums are not worth my energy," Seto retorted in disgust. "Now hurry up and get going. I don't have all day."

"Oh, don't worry, you will have all day," the man said cheerfully before turning his back towards Seto.

Seto seethed inwardly as he let himself be tugged along in the man's wake.

XO XO XO XO

Tea's eyes widened as she scanned the contents of a page in a heavy, much-forgotten book in the crook of Domino's Public Library. She hurriedly grabbed the book and leapt off her chair, running as quietly as possible as she sought out Yugi who had set up camp in another corner of the library.

She cast a quick glance around before hissing as audibly as possible, "Yugi! Yugi!"

When he looked up, she pointed at the book in her hand. Yugi rushed over to her, "You found it?"

"I think so!" she whispered back as they settled down in between the shelves and propped the book between them. She pointed towards a small section of a page. "This sounds legit. 'Seto: Former high priest who came to power upon rescinding of the throne by his predecessor, whose identity remains obscured till this day.' That unnamed pharaoh must be Atem!"

Yugi perused the page greedily, but came to much disappointment when he realized that details were scant. "I don't think Kaiba will be happy with just this much, Tea…"

"He should be grateful he even gets a mention here," Tea rolled her eyes as she snapped the book shut. "He can feel for once that he's not such a hotshot after all." She stood up and beamed at her friend. "Come on, Yugi! Let's throw this book at his face and get this over and done with." She made a face. "I don't want to know anything about the investigation anymore." She felt a buzz in her bag and pulled out her phone. "Oh, speak of the devil."

She scarcely had time to say a word into the receiver when a shrill voice which was definitely not that of her employer rang through from the other end, "He's missing, he's missing!"

Tea frowned as she tried to make sense of the babble. "Wait, Mr Roland, wait, calm down. Who's missing?"

"Both of them!" Seto Kaiba's right-hand man wailed in panic.

"Wait, both of them?"

"Mr Kaiba, and Mr Mokuba!"

"What! Wait, what happened? Mr Roland, where are you?"

"I-I don't know!" Roland continued to fret; from the slight rustle Tea heard on the phone, she guessed he was frantically glancing around him trying to figure out where he is. "I remembered pulling up in front of the Kaufmann's mansion, and then suddenly everything went black. When I woke up, Mr Kaiba is gone, and I don't know where I am! And the car is dead!"

"Okay, okay, calm down. Is there anything that you recognize around you? Any street you can walk towards?"

"Well, I see a lot of containers… I think I'm in the middle of a pier?"

Tea heaved a sigh of relief. "Will you be able to find your way out, Mr Roland?"

"Yes, I should be able to," he assured her briefly, before breaking into another panic episode. "But Mr Kaiba and Mr Mokuba! We need to find them!"

"Maybe they just went into the mansion by themselves?" Tea suggested unhelpfully, not exactly very keen about going on the hunt for her employer.

"Don't be ridiculous, Ms Gardner!" Roland chided her, visibly affronted at the prospect that his employer would purposely allow him to be left in the lurch without a word. "Mr Mokuba was taken from school without anyone's knowledge, and Mr Kaiba went after them… I think something must have happened at the mansion."

Tea groaned. "You don't say… Alright, Roland. I'll ask my friends along. We'll meet you back at KaibaCorp. We'll look for them together."

The moment she hung up, she was met by Yugi's curious and rather worried eyes. Without waiting for his prompt, she filled him in on what Roland had just told her. News of the abduction of both the Kaiba brothers provoked an alarmed but weary look from him. Life is indeed isn't easy when you have so many hidden enemies.

The entire journey in the taxi back to KaibaCorp was conducted in silence, both friends secretly equally perplexed by the entire situation. There was no doubt this had something to do with the investigation that Kaiba was looking into. Could things finally have come to a head?

"Maybe Thalia isn't as innocent as Kaiba claims her to be," Yugi finally murmured.

"She sounds like the closest thing we have to a culprit," Tea agreed. "Almost everything about her checks out. I don't understand why Kaiba is trying to clear her of blame."

"Maybe he's trying to protect her?"

"From what?" Tea barely sought to conceal the annoyance in her voice. "It's not like she's anyone special to him. Or to anyone, for that matter, if Ziegfreid could agree to cast her aside like that…"

"I feel bad for her," Yugi commented quietly. When the taxi came to an abrupt halt, he glanced out the window. "We're here. Hey, who's that?"

Tea followed with her eyes to where Yugi was pointing. A blonde with a slim, but not entirely attractive, figure was pacing about in the lobby area, once in a while putting her phone to her ear, only to set it down in frustration. Her eyes kept darting towards the lift lobby, and towards the ceiling, as if willing for someone to appear from the upper stories. Tea noted with a tinge of jealousy that the girl dressed well, in a simple but definitely designer icy blue dress contrasted with bright gold accessories that complimented her blonde hair.

"I don't know, let's go see," Tea said as they got out of the taxi. As they neared the girl, her features became more prominent, and more familiar. Almost without hesitation, Tea addressed her, "Ms Thalia Kaufmann?"

The girl spun around to face Tea at the mention of her name; Yugi flinched as wisps of her blonde hair lashed out against his forehead. Thalia's worried green eyes bored into Tea's cautious cerulean ones as she beseeched, "Seto Kaiba. Have you seen him?"

"I thought he was going over to your residence?" Tea asked slowly, suddenly unsure of the entire situation. She threw a look at Yugi; he shrugged, indicating that he too was equally confused by this sudden revelation.

"He what?" Thalia sounded as if she couldn't believe her ears, and she lapsed into a soft whimper, "Oh no. No no no no. Oh God."

Tea and Yugi was just about to comfort the heiress and inquire further when suddenly from behind them, a familiar raging voice hurled himself at her, "You! What did you do to my boss!"

"I didn't do anything!" Thalia defended herself vehemently, squaring herself off against Roland, whom Tea and Yugi thought would be wise to be kept restrained. "I didn't even know he was going to my mansion!"

"Liar!" Roland was implacable. "You kidnapped Mokuba. I can prove it!" He shoved a letter into her face. "See here? It has your initials on it! T.K.! And Mr Kaiba disappeared when we were in front of your mansion!"

"I'm not the only one in the house who has those initials!" Thalia snapped. "And if I did kidnap your boss and his brother, what would I be doing here trying desperately out of my wits for the past hour trying to call him?"

"Why were you trying to call him?" Tea interjected.

Thalia threw a glance at her. "Something that Ziegfreid told me," she answered defensively. "It's a personal matter; outsiders have no right to know."

Tea was about to respond that she knew quite well about it, but opted to keep her mouth shut. Meanwhile, Roland had taken the opportunity to rekindle the argument with the Kaufmann heiress, and they traded insults back and forth before Yugi finally with a rather loud, "Okay, that's enough!" When the both of them turned to look at him, half in shock, he lowered his voice and continued, "I don't think arguing is going to help us. Let's look for Kaiba and Mokuba, since we know they're probably at your" - he gestured towards Thalia – "mansion."

Roland finally realized something. "Wait, if what you said is true, and you didn't kidnap my boss, then who did?"

Thalia gritted her teeth as she responded, "I told you, you brickhead of a bodyguard, I'm not the only one in the house with those initials." Ignoring Roland after that, she turned to Tea and Yugi, "I don't think they're in my mansion. But assuming someone is out to frame me, I think I know where they might have been brought."


End file.
